RIGHT   AND  WRONG 


I.V 


MASSACHUSETTS 


BY  MARIA  WESTON  CHAPMAN. 


There  is  a  history  in  all  men's  lives?, 
Figuring  the  nature  of  the  time  deceased  ; 
The  which  observed,  a  man  may  prophesy, 
With  a  clear  aim  at  the  main  chance  of  things 
As  not  yet  come  to  life.  Shakespeare. 


BOSTON: 

DOW  &  JACKSON'S  ANTI-SLAVERY  PRESS. 
14  Devonshire  Street. 

1S39. 


Ef+9 
Of? 


RIGHT  AND  WRONG. 


CHAPTER  I. 

RETROSPECTION. 

Before  bringing  forward  upon  the  stage  the  characters  who  fig 
ure  in  the  drama,  I  have  endeavored  lo  make  the  reader  acquaint 
ed  with  the  ground  on  which  the  different  scenes  were  to  be  acted. 

THIERRY. 

THE  position  of  New  England  in  1829,  was  a 
most  cheerless  one  for  Freedom.  All  the  great 
interests  of  the  country  were  nearly  or  remotely 
involved  in  slaveholding,  through  all  their  various 
arrangements,  civil,  ecclesiastical,  mercantile  arid 
matrimonial;  yet  all  disclaimed  its  alliance.  Ev 
ery  body  was,  in  some  way  or  other,  actively  or 
passively,  sustaining  slavery  ;  yet  every  body  dis 
claimed  all  responsibility  for  its  existence,  oppos 
ed  all  efforts  for  its  extinction,  and  was  'as  much 
anti-slavery  as  any  body  else.'  Even  the  natur 
al  and  kindly  tide  of  human  sympathy  for  suffer- 


M193G84 


;  4  - 

ing,  was  turned  away  from  the  service  of  Freedom 
by  the  Colonization  Society.  The  moving  prin 
ciples  of  Northern  and  Southern  life,  had  become 
inseparably  mingled  below  the  surface  of  events, 
like  the  roots  of  giant  trees  beneath  the  soil. 

In  the  midst  of  this  utter  ignorance,  iron  indif 
ference  and  base  hypocrisy  respecting  that  ground 
work  of  the  human  soul,  —  its  Freedom  —  rose  up 
one  to  vindicate  the  grandeur  and  paramount  im 
portance  of  its  universal  claim.  He  was  young — 
unknown  —  poor  :  —  "  lord  of  his  presence,  and  no 
wealth  beside."  But  he  had  that  best  of  all  edu 
cations,  self-education,  and  that  best  of  all  quali 
fications  for  his  work,  an  entire  devotedness  to  the 
principles  of  liberty  which  he  had  espoused.  Ev 
ery  step  he  took,  was  characteristic,  He  was  ena 
bled  by  his  ability  as  a  writer,  his  skill  as  a  prac 
tical  mechanic,  and  his  laborious  self-denial,  to  is 
sue  the  first  number  of  a  periodical,  without  hav 
ing  obtained  a  single  subscriber.  To  him  and  to 
the  principles  he  advocated,  the  important  thing 
was  to  find  readers  ;  which  the  power  evinced  in 
his  little  sheet  enabled  him  to  do.  Its  name  was 
characteristic.  It  was  neither  a  "journal,"  nor 
an  "  observer,"  nor  a  "  register,"  nor  a  'c  record 
er,"  nor  an  "  examiner."  He  called  it  THE 


LIBERATOR.  Any  other  name  would  have 
but  feebly  expressed  the  depth  and  affirmative  na 
ture  of  its  principles.  Those  sacred  and  funda 
mental  principles  found  a  response  in  the  land, 
though  the  hearts  from  which  it  came,  were  few 
and  far  between.  The  New  England  Anti-Sla 
very  Society  was  formed  ;  and  as  man  after  man 
planted  himself  by  the  side  of  Garrison  and  Knapp, 
a  sense  of  duty  soemed  to  pervade  the  soul  of 
each  —  the  duty  of  promulgating  the  truth  of 
whose  beauty  and  necessity  his  soul  was  then 
made  sensible.  The  Liberator  was  not  their  or 
gan,  in  an  official  sense, — but  how  could  they 
conscientiously  do  otherwise  than  sustain  the  in 
strumentality  which  their  own  experience  had 
proved  so  effectual  ? 

They  lectured  on  the  subject  of  slavery  as  they 
found  opportunity;  and  by  circulation  of  the  Lib 
erator  and  such  publications  as  their  means  could 
furnish,  and  by  diligence  in  conversation  and  argu 
ment,  they  succeeded  in  arousing  a  portion  of  the 
community  to  its  consideration. 

Though  the  idea  of  united,  concentrated  moral 
effort,  was  familiar  to  their  minds,  —  though  the 
land  was  in  fact  permeated  by  education  and  mis 
sionary  Societies,  —  though  this  was  emphatically 
1* 


the  age  of  benevolence  and  of  voluntary  associa 
tion,  yet  a  mighty  preparation  of  heart  was  need 
ed  in  every  individual  who  listened  to  this  call  of 
Liberty,  before  he  could  resolve  to  avail  himself 
of  similar  means  for  the  promulgation  of  her 
great  principles  :  principles,  which,  lying  deep 
er  than  the  shallow  foundations  of  the  popular  be 
nevolent  enterprises  of  the  day,  were  identical 
with  those  of  Christianity  herself. 

Christianity,  in  every  age,  has  ever  presented 
herself  as  the  antagonist  of  its  crying  abomination. 
The  same  in  spirit,  her  visible  appearance  is  mod 
ified  by  the  giant  obstacle  she  meets  in  each  suc 
cessive  generation.  Sometimes,  in  conflict  with 
idolatry,  she  stands  with  her  face  of  triumphant 
brightness  opposed  to  the  refined,  the  intellectual, 
and  the  powerful  ;  and  every  step  is  over  a  crumb 
ling  altar  and  a  prostrate  priest.  Sometimes,  as 
in  the  days  immediately  preceding  those  of  which 
we  write,  her  advanced  guard  are  casting  out  the 
unclean  spirit  of  intemperance.  In  the  close-suc 
ceeding  years,  she  comes,  like  LIBERTY,  to  inhab 
it  the  dwelling  from  which  intemperance  has  been 
banished  to  make  room  for  her  beatific  presence. 

By  this  call  of  the  age  for  a  manifestation  of 
Christianity  against  slavery,  were  hundreds  drawn 
together  during  the  first  two  years  of  the  existence 


of  the  N.  E.  Anti-Slavery  Association.  They 
came  from  every  sect,  and  class,  and  party — of 
every  age  and  sex  and  color  :  and  often  might 
the  feeling  with  which  the  differing  sectaries  be 
held,  each,  the  anxious  labors  of  the  other  for  the 
same  object,  and  to  their  astonishment  found  how 
much  they  possessed  in  common,  have  been  well 
expressed  by  the  colloquy  of  the  high  caste  Ger 
man  protestant  and  the  despised  Jew. 

"  This  conduct,  Jew,  doth  verily  seem  Christinn." 
"God  bless  you  !   what  makes  me  to  you  a  Christian 
Makes  you  to  me  a  Jew." 

To  establish  their  association  on  this  broad  and 
enduring  foundation ofsympathy  and  earnest  union 
in  the  exercise  of  every  means  sanctioned  by  each 
member's  idea  of  law,  humanity  and  religion,  was 
the  early  labor  of  New  England  abolitionists. 
At  their  second  annual  gathering,  Charles  Follen 
offered  the  following  resolution  : — 

"  Resolved,  that  this  society  has  for  \tssole  object 
the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  United  States,  with 
out  any  reference  to  local  interests,  political  par 
ties,  or  religious  sects. " 

This  resolution,  says  the  report  of  that  year, 
"  was  sustained  in  a  truly  admirable  manner,  and 
unanimously  adopted." 


The  enthusiasm  for  liberty  was  sufficiently 
strong  to  overcome  not  only  bigotry  but  selfishness. 
Indeed  those  who  had  sacrificed  lucrative  or  hon 
orable  situations,  or  labored  gratuitously,  receiv 
ing  nothing  in  guerdon  but  the  misrepresentation 
of  the  oppressor,  were  hardly  likely  to  yield  to  the 
temptation  incident  toother  associated  operations, 
—  that  of  making  them  subserve  the  love  of  pow 
er  or  praise.  Sectarianism  and  selfishness  having 
been  overcome,  it  was  without  any  emotion  but 
that  of  joyful  anticipation,  that  the  New  England 
Society  labored  to  carry  out  the  following  resolu 
tion,  introduced  by  Mr.  Garrison  in  1833: — 

"  Resolved,  that  the  formation  of  a  national  so 
ciety  is  essential  to  the  complete  regeneration  of 
public  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  slavery ;  and 
that  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  New  England 
Society  be  authorized  to  call  a  national  meeting 
of  the  friends  of  abolition,  for  the  purpose  of  or 
ganizing  such  a  society." 

Their  success  was  thus  announced  in  the  annual 
report  of  1835: — 

"  In  consequence  of  the  formation  of  the  Ameri 
can  Society,  and  of  the  design  contemplated  to  form 


State  Societies  in  the  New  England  States,  which 
has  been  already  accomplished  in  Maine,  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont,  the  operations  of  the 
New  England  Society  during  the  past  year  have 
been  very  much  confined  to  Massachusetts,  and 
hereafter  it  will  be  only  a  State  Society." 

These  enlarged  souls  thought  it  no  humiliation 
to  take  a  lower  seat.  Their  object  wras  Lib 
erty  throughout  the  land  unto  all  the  inhabit 
ants  thereof,  and  not  the  establishment  of  a  pow 
erful  institution,  of  which  they  should  have  the 
control.  They  go  on  to  say,  — 

"Though  the  comparative  importance  of  this 
association  has,  owing  to  the  causes  just  mention 
ed,  been  in  some  measure  diminished,  yet  its  zeal 
activity  and  numbers  are  unimpaired,  while  iis 
principles  are  spreading  with  unexampled  rapid 
ity." 

We  find  them  abjuring  every  thought  of  control, 
jurisdiction,  centralization  and  monopoly  of  means 
and  power.  Voluntarily  taking  what  in  the  ap 
prehension  of  many  would  be  a  lower  seat,  they 
assumed  the  name  of  the  Massachusetts,  instead  of 
the  New  England  Anti-Slavery  Society.  The  plan 
of  a  national  organization,  with  its  various  compo- 


10 


nent  parts,  from  state  and  county  to  town  and  par 
ish  societies,  was  skilfully  planned,  and  its  execu 
tion  commenced  with  great  spirit.  There  was  no 
difficulty  in  obtaining  funds  for  the  use  of  the  Ex 
ecutive  Committee  of  this  national  association,  as 
all  the  abolitionists  were  its  members,  and  their 
confidence  in  the  men  they  had  selected  to  form 
this  Committee,  was  very  great.  Unlike  the  pa 
rent  and  pioneer  Committee,  it  numbered  among 
its  members  men  of  wealth  ;  and  their  liberality 
enabled  them  to  send  into  the  field  numbers  of  able 
financial  and  lecturing  agents. 

At  the  State  gatherings  and  New  England  Con 
ventions,  these  agents  were  wont  to  take  donations 
and  pledges,  which  Massachusetts  abolitionists, 
with  their  characteristic  disinterestedness,  were 
anxious  to  make,  that  the  central  committee  might 
be  supplied,  even  though  it  drained  the  State  So 
ciety  of  its  resources. 

A  practical  difficulty  soon  became  obvious. 
Some,  meaning  to  pledge  money  to  the  State 
Society,  found  their  pledge  received  as  to  the 
National  Society  —  others,  meaning  to  sustain 
the  National,  found  their  pledge  recorded  as 
to  the  State ;  and  great  confusion,  both  in  the 
accounts  of  the  agents,  arid  in  the  minds  of 


11 


abolitionists,  was  the  consequence.  Notwith 
standing  this,  the  work  went  most  encouragingly 
forward; — all  being  delighted  with  the  efficiency 
of  the  National  Society,  however  inconvenient 
and  depressing,  in  a  business  sense,  its  mode  of 
operation  might  be,  and  however  the  action  of  the 
State  Society  was  paralyzed  by  the  labors  of  its 
financial  agents.  Still  it  was  thought  that  some 
arrangement  might  be  devised  by  which  to 
obviate  the  uncertainty  and  inconvenience  which 
the  double  draft  of  funds  occasioned  ;  and  at 
the  last  quarterly  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts 
Society  in  1835,  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
consider  the  subject.  They  reported  that  the 
then  existing  arrangements  were  very  embarrass 
ing  to  the  Massachusetts  Society  ;  but  no  plan 
was  adopted  for  more  convenient  ones. 

This  was  the  situation  and  bearing  of  the  fiscal 
arrangements  at  the  beginning  of  1836. 

Meanwhile  the  grand  battle  had  been  going 
powerfully  on,  and  the  energies  of  all  were  se 
verely  tasked.  The  enthusiasm  for  the  cause  had 
overleaped  not  only  sectarian  divisions,  but  the 
"  graceful  feebleness,"  which  the  age  cherished 
as  an  ornament  in  the  female  character.  The 
women  of  the  cause,  in  the  difficult  times  of  1835, 


were  peculiarly  active.  They  devoted  themselves 
to  the  work  of  obtaining  signatures  to  petitions 
with  commendable  energy.  A  history  of  their 
progress  from  door  to  door,  with  the  obstacles 
they  encountered,  would  be  at  once  touching, 
ludicrous,  and  edifying.  Young  women,  whose 
labors  depended  on  public  opinion,  laid  the  claims 
of  the  enslaved  to  freedom  before  those  whose 
simple  word  might  grant  or  deny  their  own  means 
of  subsistence.  Benevolent-looking  elderly  gen 
tlemen,  individuals  of  the  highest  respectability 
and  influence  in  the  community,  were  wont  to 
witness  the  appeal  kindly,  favoring  the  applicant 
with  good  advice  as  to  her  future  course. 

"  My  dear  young  lady,  it  gives  me  pain  to  see 
your  efforts  so  entirely  wasted.  You  only  injure 
the  cause  you  espouse  by  thus  leaving  your  sphere. 
You  actually  prevent  those  who  are  capable  of 
understanding  this  question,  and  whom  their  sex 
points  out  as  the  only  proper  persons  to  consider 
it,  from  entering  upon  its  consideration.  You 
make  the  whole  matter  seem  little,  and  below  the 
attention  of  men."  But  the  women  judged  for 
themselves,  and  very  rationally  too,  that  the 
women  whose  efforts  for  the  cause  could  not  be 
hindered  by  men,  were  more  valuable  auxiliaries 


13 


than  the  men  whose  dignity  forbade  them  to  be 
fellow-laborers  with  women. 

The  individual  and  collective  energy  of  the 
community,  both  moral  and  physical,  was  that 
year  employed  to  keep  women  from  leaving  what 
was  termed  "  their  appropriate  sphere,"  by  peti 
tioning  and  holding  the  meetings  of  their  respective 
Societies  ;  but  in  vain. 

Their  sole  reply  to  the  restrictive  efforts  of 
the  public,  was  conveyed  in  such  resolutions  as 
the  following  : — "  Resolved,  that,  in  a  conflict 
of  principles;  we  believe  Scripture  to  teach  that 
there  is  neither  bond  or  free,  male  or  female,  for 
eigner  or  native  ;  but  all  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus  ; 
and  therefore  feel  ourselves  called  in  common  with 
man,  to  toil  and  suffer,  as  all  must,  who  effectually 
defend  the  truth."  Manifold  were  the  pretences 
under  which  men  disguised  their  hatred  to  freedom. 
From  the  beginning,  those  who  professed  to  be 
thoroughly  opposed  to  Slavery  in  the  abstract, 
(sunh  was  the  cant  phrase  of  that  time,)  had 
concealed  their  hatred  to  liberty  under  the  guise 
of  dislike  to  the  measures  of  abolitionists.  As 
those  measures  were  entirely  unexceptionable  in 
reality,  the  pretence  settled  down  into  a  stereo 
typed  aversion  to  harsh  language.  Under  this 

term,   were   comprehended   that    faithfulness   to 
3 


14 


principle,  accuracy  of  moral  classification,  appro 
priateness  of  style  to  subject,  and  strict  impar 
tiality  which  the  effects  of  Mr.  Garrison's  ex 
ample  had  been  to  make  general  in  the  cause.  It 
was  this  example  of  fidelity-  which  made  an  ex 
pression  of  confidence  in  him,  or  an  expression  of 
approbation  of  his  course,  equivalent  to  a  test-act. 
There  are  so  many  persons  who  will  assent  to  an 
abstractly  righteous  proposition,  though  they  start 
back  in  alarm  from  righteousness  personified, 
that  it  was  fortunate  for  the  cause,  if  such  were 
prevented  by  his  faithfulness  from  clogging  it  with 
their  useless  numbers. 

The  most  delightful  and  at  the  same  time  the 

o 

most  surprising  feature  of  the  Anti-Slavery  cause 
was  the  harmonious  co-operation  of  all  engaged 
in  its  advancement.  Delightful,  because  rare  in 
any  circumstances, — surprising,  because  the  ma 
terials  of  which  the  Society  was  formed,  were,  to 
human  eye,  so  discordant.  But  each  member, 
in  virtue  of  a  clear  perception  of  the  truth  that 
the  whole  is  greater  than  a  part,  when  sect  came 
in  collision  with  the  universal  cause  of  freedom, 
made  the  less  give  way  to  the  greater,  and  each 
was  zealously  and  kindly  watchful,  not  to  enforce 
his  distinctive  opinions,  in  religion  or  politics,  on 
his  brother.  Seeing  that  his  brother  had  religious 


15 


and  political  principles  of  his  own,  he  contented 
himself  with  urging  their  constant  application  to 
the  case  of  the  enslaved.  This  watchfulness  was 
perhaps  more  careful  in  Massachusetts,  than  in 
any  other  state.  Abolition  there  had  been  a 
growth  and  not  a  manufacture  ;  and  it  was  observ 
able  that  the  more  devoted  was  the  zeal  of  the 
abolitionists,  the  more  enlarged  was  their  tolera 
tion.  It  was  neither  natural  nor  desirable  that 
differences  of  opinion  should  not  occasional 
ly  appear  in  Abolition  meetings,  but  their  ap 
pearance  was  never  the  signal  of  wrath  and  clamor. 
The  great  hope  of  the  association  was  that  the 
church  might  be  roused  by  its  instrumentality  to 
put  forth  her  moral  power  against  slavery  ;  and  at 
the  New  England  convention  of  1836,  a  resolution 
was  proposed  declaring  that  a  church  using  its 
influence  to  delay  and  prevent  the  fulfilment  of 
the  will  of  Christ,  has  no  claim  to  be  considered 
his  ;  and  that  only  those  churches  who  employed 
their  associated  influence  for  reform,  should  be 
considered  the  true  and  real  church  of  God.. 
Elizur  Wright  objected  to  any  resolution  which 
would  divide  the  church  ; — our  object  was  to 
purify.  Rev.  Mr.  Peckham  followed  him,  de 
claring  that  this  Convention,  not  being  an  ecclesi 
astical  body,  was  not  qualified  to  sit  in  judgment 


on  the  churches.  Many  of  the  members  of  the 
Convention  were  not,  he  said,  even  church  mem 
bers,  and  therefore  it  was  improper  for  them  to  sit 
in  judgment  on  the  conduct  of  church  members. 
Should  we  say  to  this  man,  who  is  an  abolitionist, 
Stand  thou  here,  and  to  another,  who  is  opposed 
to  abolition,  Stand  thou  there  ?  Were  there  no 
spots  upon  our  own  garments,  which  those  we 
undertake  to  sever  from  the  church  might  point 
out  ?  On  the  question  of  abolition  he  was  ready 
to  go  as  far  as  any  Anti-Slavery  man  he  ever  saw  ; 
but  when  a  measure  was  proposed  that  must  divide 
the  churches,  he  must  oppose  it.  The  Rev.  Geo. 
Allen,  of  Shrewsbury,  thought  the  passage  of  a 
resolution  dangerous  which  might  be  followed  by 
denunciation,  vituperation  and  division  of  the 
churches.  The  resolution  was  recommitted. 
Subsequently  one  was  offered  by  Rev.  J.  T. 
Woodbury,  enforcing  discipline  and  excommuni 
cation  of  slaveholders.  The  strong  words  of 
truth  he  uttered  on  that  occasion  sank  deep  into 
the  hearts  of  hundreds  who  heard  them,  and 
influence  their  conduct  to  this  day. 

"  What  is  the  Church  doing?"  he  said.  "  Sell 
ing  indulgences  for  sin  —  the  worst  of  sins — 
the  sin  of  man-stealing — yea,  the  sin  of  stealing 


17 


and  selling  a  brother  in  the  Church  I  What  do 
they  do  ?  The  hammer  is  lifted  over  the  head 
of  the  Christian — yes,  the  Christian,  the  child  of 
God — and  the  cry  is,  who  bids  ?  Brother  sells 
his  brother,  and  the  Church  says,  it  is  all 
right,  while  the  watchmen,  on  the  walls  of  Zion, 
pass  the  word,  all's  icell!  Though  the  auction 
eer  is  a  church  member,  the  seller,  and  buyer, 
and  the  poor  slave,  all  members  of  the  same 
Church,  yet  the  Church  does  not  censure  the 
deed.  It  is  all  right.  *  *  *  The  Church  that 
does  not  pronounce  slavery  a  sin,  and  deal  with 
its  members,  who  refuse  to  confess  and  forsake 
it,  in  effect,  licenses  slavery.  It  stands  as  the 
virtual  endorser  of  the  crime.  If  men  are  robbed 
of  the  Bible,  and  of  all  knowledge  of  letters  ;  if 
parents  are  punished,  as  felons,  for  teaching  their 
own  children  the  alphabet,  and  the  Church  does 
nothing,  then  the  Church,  by  its  silence,  endor 
ses  it,  and  declares  it  is  all  right.  If  parents  are 
robbed  of  their  children,  forced  to  see  them  drag 
ged  to  the  market,  and  knocked  off  to  the  negro 
speculator — the  Church  stands  by,  and  says,  "/tf's 
all  right."  The  Church  allows  this,  not  only  in 
its  members,  but  in  its  elders,  and  deacons,  and 
pastors,  and  bishops  ;  and  hence  it  stands  justly 
responsible  for  selling  indulgences  to  license  the 
sin  of  slavery.  *  *  *  What!  shall  the  Ameri 
can  churches  form  Bible  societies,  and  pledge 
themselves  before  God,  that  they  will  give  the 
Bible  to  the  whole  world,  and  then  withhold  it 
2* 


18 


from  twenty -five  hundred  thousand  souls  in  their 
very  midst  ?  What  have  we  seen  here  ?  A 
Virginia  Christian  slaveholder  comes  here,  and 
appeals  to  us  about  the  Virginia  State  Bible  So 
ciety,  to  send  the  Bible  to  the  extreme  ends  of 
the  earth.  *  *  *  Why  don't  he  give  the  Bible 
to  his  own  slaves  then,  and  teach  them  to  read  it, 
before  he  asks  for  our  money  to  help  him  send 
Bibles  to  the  slaves  in  sin  in  distant  lands? 
How  does  he  look  ;  the  agent  of  the  Virginia 
Bible  Society,  begging  for  money,  to  give  the 
Bible  to  Chinese  men  aid  Hindoo  pariahs,  and 
refusing  to  give  it,  or  let  us  give  it,  to  six  hundred 
thousand  immortal  beings  in  his  own  State  *? 
Why,  what  a  hypocrite  !  Is  there  a  being  on 
earth,  the  most  degraded  even  of  the  miserable 
slaves,  whose  souls  are  left  to  perish,  who  cannot 
see  the  inconsistency,  the  absurdity,  the  hypocri 
sy  of  this  ?  Is  God  a  fool,  to  be  thus  mocked  ? 
Sir,  I  will  raise  my  voice  against  such  hypocrisy 
as  long  as  1  live.  It  shall  ring  in  the  ears  of  ev 
ery  slaveholder  who  asks  us  to  help  him  give 
Bibles  to  the  heathen,  thousands  of  miles  off, 
while  he  withholds  them  from  the  slaves  at  his 
own  door.  Why,  his  very  Bibles,  which  he 
sends  to  the  Hindoo,  are  bought  with  the  blood 
and  souls  of  his  slaves.  It  is  dividing  the  gains 
of  hell  with  God.  *  *  *  If  this  is  Christianity, 
well  might  the  heathen  say,  God  defend  us  from 
Christianity." 


19 


A  graphic  picture,  distinct  as  just,  and  yet  there 
sat  a  few  in  this  very  convention  "  ready  to  go 
as  far  as  any  Anti-Slavery  man  they  ever  saw," 
who  deprecated  division  on  Anti-Slavery  ground, 
though  their  general  principle  was,  to  hold  no 
fellowship  with  immorality.  The  resolution  of 
Mr.  Woodhury  passed,  with  but  one  dissenting 
voice.  Mr.  Sewall,  who  voted  in  the  negative, 
and  Mr. May,  who'declined  voting  on  the  question, 
explained  their  conduct  by  stating  that  they  u  en 
tertained  doubts  whether  any  body  of  Christians 
had  a  right  to  exclude  a  man  from  the  communion 
table  at  all."  At  the  same  time  they  heartily 
.agreed  with  the  Abolition  spirit  of  the  resolution, 
and  thought  it  the  duty  of  Christians  who  believe 
in  the  propriety  of  this  discipline  in  the  church 
to  vote  for  it.  In  the  course  of  the  Convention, 
a  resolution  was  presented,  involving  a  personal 
pledge  from  each  member,  of  life  and  fortune  and 
honor  to  the  cause  :  and  well-remembered  words 
of  fervent  solemnity  yet  sound  in  the  ears  of 
those  who  were  then  adjured  to  stand  firm,  "come 
what  might."  Women  were  earnestly  entreated 
to  assist  the  passage  of  this  resolution,  and  almost 
all  present  united  in  it. 

The  ecclesiastical  opposition  to  the  cause  could 


not  fail  to  be  brought  out  in  bold  relief  by  the 
proceedings  of  this  Convention.  During  the  whole 
year,  its  workings  were  manifest,  and  at  the  annual 
mooting  of  the  Massachusetts  Society  in  1837,  its 
efforts  were  successfully  exerted  in  reducing  the 
Abolitionists  to  the  necessity  of  meeting  in  a 
stable.  Though  the  church  cast  its  whole  weight 
in  their  way,  the  State  was  less  obstinate  in  its 
opposition,  and  the  use  of  the  State  House  was 
permitted  for  one  session  of  the  .Society.  Mr. 
Stanton  wished  that  this  yielding  on  the  part  of 
the  State  might  be  considered  as  a  keen  rebuke  to 
those  churches  which  had  refused  their  houses  of 
worship,  that  we  might  plead  in  them  the  cause  of 
2,000,000  of  American  heathen.  Mr.  Fitch 
deprecated  this  "  turning  aside  "  to  remark  upon 
the  obstacles  cast  in  our  way.  He  feared  there 
was  danger  of  losing  sight  of  the  end  of  our 
organization  as  an  Anti-Slavery  Society.  <£  We 
should  not  let  these  efforts  for  free  discussion  so 
absorb  our  minds.  Let  us  think  of  the  infinitely 
more  oppressive  wrongs  of  the  poor  slave."  There 
was  an  indefinable  something  in  these  remarks, 
which  revealed  an  entire  want  of  comprehension 
gf  the  hearts  of  abolitionists  in  general.  Was  it 
for  themselves,  then,  that  they  made  these  efforts. 


and  administered  these  rebukes  ?  Were  not  their 
thoughts  riveted  on  the  Slave?  and  was  not  this 
fixedness  of  determination  the  very  cause  of  their 
rebukes,  and  of  their  efforts  for  free  discussion  ? 
Free  discussion  of  what  ?  Why,  of  the  Slaves' 
wrongs  and  the  means  of  righting  them  !  and  yet 
this  incomprehensible  jargon  about  turning  aside  ! 
During  the  succeeding  meetings,  the  Anti- 
Slavery  spirit  swelled  high  and  strong.  The 
Liberator  was  warmly  sustained  by  all  the  friends 
present,  among  whom  were  Messrs.  Chaplin, 
Walker,  May,  and  Stanton.  "  The  inquiry  is 
often  made  of  me,"  said  Mr.  Stanton,  "  why 
does  not  the  American  Society  sustain  it  ?  The 
answer  is,  Let  Massachusetts  sustain  it,  as  she 
ought."  Mr.  St.  Clair,  in  particular,  express 
ed  the  warmest  eulogy  on  the  Liberator.  Mr. 
Garrison  spoke  as  one  knowing  the  folly  of  be 
ing  elevated  by  human  applause,  or  depressed 
by  human  censure  ;  he  remarked  that  it  was  nei 
ther  his  aim  nor  ex-pectation,  to  please  every 
subscriber.  u  It  must  suffice  that  free  discus 
sion  is  my  motto,  and  those  who  are  opposed  to 
me  in  sentiment  are  always  invited  to  occupy  a 
place.'!  Political  action,  as  one  of  the  modes 
contemplated  by  the  Society,  was  adverted  to. 


Mr.  Stanton  introduced  a  resolution,  affirming  that 
the  people  of  Massachusetts  ought  not  to  vote 
for  an  upholder  of  slavery.  Mr.  Garrison  warm 
ly  seconded  the  resolution. 

At  the  New-England  Convention  of  1837,  Mr. 
Phelps  followed  up  the  efforts  upon  the  church, 
by  a  series  of  resolutions,  accompanied  by  most 
convincing  reasons,  urging  the  necessity  of  the 
excommunication  of  slaveholders,  and  a  solemn 
consideration  of  the  question  whether,  the  churches 
remaining  obdurate,  it  be  not  the  duty  of  the  ad 
vocates  of  truth  and  righteousness  to  "come  out 
from  among  them,  and  be  separate."  These  res 
olutions  were  heartily  approved  by  the  Conven 
tion,  with  the  exception  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Lee. 
The  argument  by  Mr.  Peckham,  in  1836,  that 
this  Convention  was  not  an  ecclesiastical  body,  and 
that  many  of  its  members  were  unconnected  with 
any  church,  \veighed  much  in  the  mind  of  Mr. 
Lee.  He  represented  that  the  brethren  present, 
ought  to  consider,  before  adopting  the  resolutions, 
the  manner  in  which  they  would  be  met  by  the 
associations  of  the  Ministry.  They  will  say  that 
this  Convention  was  composed  of  men  who  hold 
that  Christ  is  God,  and  must  be  worshipped  as 
such,  and  others  who  deny  this,  and  believe  it 


23 


idolatry  so  to  worship  him;  again  there  are 
others  who  make  no  pretensions  to  religion,  but 
trample  under  foot  the  blood  of  Christ  :  now 
they  will  say,  these  persons  come  together  in  an 
Anti-Slavery  Convention,  conniving  at  each 
other's  sins,  and  then  pass  resolutions  touching 
a  particular  sin  about  which  the  church  differs. 
There  were  a  great  many  ministers  engaged  in  this 
good  work,  but  though  we  were  abolitionists,  must 
not  the  ministers  of  the  church  stand  up  for  the 
church,  and  protect  her  walls  from  being  thrown 
down  ?  These  resolutions  proposed  to  divide  the 
church  —  that  would  be  the  -effect.  They  would  be 
an  entering  wedge.  They  would  be  driven  home 
by  the  newspapers  and  other  influences,  till  the 
church  was  severed.  Subsequently  Mr.  Lee  gave 
his  brethren  a  word  of  caution  not  to  say  too 
much  against  the  church.  Bad  as  it  was,  it  was 
the  light  of  the  world  ;  and  if  we  wanted  to  save 
the  world,  we  must  preserve  the  church  of 
Christ  on  earth. 

The  Convention  sat  uneasily  under  this  speech. 
Its  spirit  wras  faithfully  and  eloquently  opposed, 
and  the  resolutions  were  adopted  with  but  three 
dissenting  voices  ;  one,  Mrs.  Fifield  of  Weymouth, 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  too  great  an  assumption 


24 


of  power  in  man  to  exclude  his  brother  from  the 
table  of  the  Lord.  The  Rev.  George  Trask  introdu 
ced  a  resolution  on  the  subject  of  peace,  as  con 
nected  with  abolition,  which  was  sustained  by 
William  Goodell  and  others.  Mr.  Goodell  said 
that  he  was  a  peace  man,  and  had  he  not  suppo 
sed  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  to  be  al 
so  a  Peace  Society,  he  never  should  have  joined 
it.  A  discussion  ensued  respecting  the  declara 
tion  of  sentiment  and  constitution  of  the  Society. 
Some  thought  the  Peace  principles  were  invol 
ved  in  them,  some  not,  according  to  their  different 
ideas  of  the  extent  of  these  principles. 

The  discussion  had  continued  two  hours,  when 
Mr.  Garrison  arose.  "  Brethren,"  he  said,  "  you 
all  know  my  views  on  this  subject.  They  cover 
the  extreme  ground  of  non-resistance,  and  so,  in 
my  understanding  of  it,  does  this  resolution.  Let 
me  say  to  Brother  Goodell,  that  I  think  he,  on 
further  thought,  would  not  wish  to  adopt  it,  nei 
ther  do  I  think  the  Assembly  ready  to  pass  it. 
This  is  neither  the  place  nor  the  occasion.  Let 
us  stop  discussing  it  now."  The  resolution  was 
moulded  into  the  shape  of  a  re-affirmation  of  pacif 
ic  principles,  as  set  forth  in  the  Declaration  of 
sentiment  of  the  National  Convention  in  1033, 


and   in  that    modified   form   unanimously   adopt 
ed. 

Many  of  the  members  of  this  meeting  had 
their  minds  firmly  anchored  on  the  ultra  non- 
resistance  principle.  They  saw  it  through 
their  abolition  principles,  as  the  eye  fastens 
upon  the  farthest  surface  of  a  diamond  through 
the  transparent  medium  of  the  nearest  ;  yet 
they  felt  that  it  was  not  the  business  of  Anti- 
Slavery  organizations  as  such,  to  come  to  a  de 
cision  upon  it,  and  they  were  desirous  to  wave 
its  consideration.  Who  could  have  foretold  that 
these  very  persons,  and  Mr.  Garrison  in  particu 
lar,  were  hereafter  to  be  arraigned  as  loading  the 
cause  with  foreign  topics  ? 

Up  to  this  point  of  time,  May,  1837,  the  hearts 
of  the  abolitionists  were  united  as  the  heart  of 
one.  Exceptions  did  exist  to  the  general  love 
and  harmony,  but  they  were  very  rare.  As  a 
general  rule,  the  mobs,  misrepresentations,  and 
threats  of  prosecution  at  common  law,  seemed  to 
unite  them  the  closer.  Each  strove  to  shelter 
the  rest  from  whatever  storm  of  opposition  they 
were  called  to  share.  They  defended  each  other 
from  the  charge  of  harsh  and  unchristian  feelings 
and  language  —  they  called  for,  and  recorded 
3 


the  votes  of  women  —  they  unanimously  declared 
in  solemn  assembly,  that  they,  as  abolitionists, 
believed  that  the  anti-slavery  cause  was  one,  with 
regard  to  which  all  human  beings,  whether  men 
or  women,  citizens  or  foreigners,  white  or  colored, 
had  the  same  duties  and  the  same  rights  —  they 
passed  resolutions  of  thanks  for  the  co-operation 
of  women,  under  the  unusual  and  difficult  duties 
that  devolved  upon  them.  In  vain  were  the  noise 
of  the  waves,  and  the  tumult  of  the  people ;  they 
broke  harmlessly  against  this  rock-founded  for 
tress. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE   CLERICAL    APPEAL. 


Christian.  Did  you  know,  about  ten  year^ago,  one  TEMPO 
RARY,  who  dwelt  next  door  to  one  TURNBACK  "?  Since  we  are 
talking  about  him,  let  us  a  little  inquire  into  the  reason  of  the 
sudden  backsliding  of  him  and  such  others. 

Hopeful.     It  may  be  profitable.  BONYAN. 


THE  re-action  of  the  church,  in  consequence  of 
such  an  effort  as  the  one  made  by  this  Convention, 
was  greater  than  some  who  had  fancied  themselves 
abolitionists  were  able  to  bear.  Compelled  to 
choose  between  their  pro-slavery  brethren  of  the 
church  and  ministry  and  their  brethren  of  the  ab 
olition  cause,  they  shrunk  from  the  latter.  Their 
efforts  to  justify  themselves  in  cramping  the  cause, 
that  they  might  avoid  its  reproach,  constitute  an 
era  in  its  progress,  known  as  the  "  Boston  Contro 
versy."  The  plan  originated  with  five  clergymen  of 
Bostonand  vicinity,  the  Rev.Messrs. Charles  Fitch, 
Joseph  H.  Towne,  Jonas  Perkins^  David  Sand- 


28 


ford,  and  William  Cornell.  When  the  ecclesiasti 
cal  tumult  swelled  high,  their  hearts  were  stirred 
up  with  it,  as  the  water  of  inland  wells  is  said  to 
rise  and  fall  with  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  bitter 
ocean  tide  without. 

Their  appeal  commenced  with  an  acknowledg 
ment  of  the  sins  of  their  brethren,  in  the  use  of 
harsh  language,  and  an  accusation  of  the  most  prom 
inent  abolitionists,  of  an  unkind,  improper  and  un 
christian  course,  as  such,  assuming  as  one  of  the 
principles  of  action  in  the  cause,  that  it  must  not 
be  presented  in  a  "  brother's  pulpit,"  when  by  so 
doing  a  brother  might  be  aggrieved.  This  last  as 
sumption  was  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  motto 
of  every  pulpit,  as  well  as  in  defiance  of  the  pro 
fessed  principles  of  every  Christian  minister  to  "cry 
aloud  and  spare  not  "  in  the  promulgation  of  truth, 
and  "  to  show  the  people  their  transgressions,"  — 
"  whether  they  will  hear,  or  whether  they  will  for 
bear." 

The  accusation  of  harsh  language  was  robbed  of 
its  power  by  the  heavily  charged  and  indiscrimi 
nate  epithets  which  some  of  the  appellants  them 
selves  were  accustomed  to  use.  Having  no  stand 
ard  within  themselves  by  which  to  graduate  their 
language,  the  quality  of  their  labors  was  regulat- 


•29 


ed  by  the  market  principle  of  demand  and  supply. 
The  respective  churches  in  Boston,  to  which  two 
of  them  had  been  called  from  the  country  to  min 
ister,  had  more  fame  (or  infamy,  as  the  world  count 
ed  it)  on  account  of  abolition,  than  they  deserved. 
The  appellants  soon  ascertained  that  the  market  was 
fluctuating,  and  they  also  fluctuated  and  fell.  Ig 
norant  of  the  general  temperature  of  the  abolition 
mind  without,  they  fancied  it  in  correspondence 
with  that  under  their  immediate  observation,  and 
took  the  ill-considered  step  of  appealing  before 
the  world  from  the  requisitions  of  their  own  ac 
knowledged  principles  of  action  with  regard  to  the 
preaching  of  acknowledged  truth. 

It  must  be  remembered,  in  excuse  of  clergymen 
who  in  this  stage  of  the  cause  put  their  hands  to 
the  plough  and  turned  back,  that  the  laudable  de 
sire  of  the  National  Society  to  have  the  field  filled 
with  agents  had  induced  some  to  enter  it  whose  prep 
aration  of  heart  was  altogether  unequal  to  the  work. 
They  yielded  to  circumstances  and  to  entreaties, 
rather  than  to  convictions  of  duty  and  love  of  the 
cause.  Some  too  had  been  prematurely  urged 
into  the  anti-slavery  ranks  by  the  anxiety  of  the 
women  of  their  respective  congregations  to  obtain 
the  influence  of  their  names  for  the  cause.  This 
3* 


30 


practice  of  making  those  life  members  who  are  but 
slightly  interested  in  the  cause,  however  well  cal 
culated  to  swell  the  funds  of  popular  societies,  and 
secure  the  efforts  of  the  ministry  in  their  favor, 
has  been  productive  of  nothing  but  mischief  in  An- 
ti  Slavery  Societies,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  no 
persons  will  hereafter  be  subjected  to  the  painful 
alternative  of  accepting  a  testimony  of  regard  of 
which  they  are  unworthy,  or  of  acknowledging  en 
mity  to  the  cause  of  Freedom.  Let  no  one  be 
constituted  a  life  member,  whose  own  heart  has 
not  so  wrought  upon  his  life  as  to  make  it  clear 
that  his  membership  is  something  more  than  a 
payment  of  fifteen  dollars. 

The  clerical  appeal  was,  in  fact,  an  invitation 
to  the  leaders  of  the  opposing  host  of  clergymen, 
to  come  and  take  the  direction  of  the  Anti-Slavery 
cause.  The  former  character  of  its  signers  as  ab 
olitionists —  their  confident  tone,  and  the  sudden 
ness  of  the  movement,  drew  general  attention  and 
remark.  A  lively  sensation  ensued  throughout 
New  England. 

The  appellants  reported  that  they  were  cheer 
ed  on  by  nine  tenths  of  their  brother  clergymen. 
This  increased  the  agitation  ;  for  the  fibolitionists 
had  found,  from  the  beginning,  their  most  active 


31 


opponents  among  this  class  of  men.  Coming,  as 
it  did,  immediately  after  the  claim  of  the  Mass. Gen 
eral  Association  of  Ministers,  for  more  respect  and 
for  the  exclusion  of  agitating  topics,  the  appeal 
identified  its  originators  with  the  opposing  minis 
try,  and  disjoined  them  from  abolitionists.  It  was 
already  seen  of  all,  that  this  new  principle  of  sup 
pressing  the  truth  when  the  truth  gives  offence, 
would,  if  generally  adopted,  completely  extinguish 
the  Anti- Slavery  cause.  Merchants,  who  had 
received  hints  that  they  were  to  be  hissed  off 
'Change,  for  bringing  their  principles  into  daily 
practice,  —  lawyers,  whose  clients  had  deserted 
them  in  disgust  when  the  pictures  of  kneeling 
slaves  found  room  in  their  places  of  business,  — 
women,  who  had  been  proscribed  from  their  re 
spective  social  circles  for  making  a  morning  call 
the  medium  of  presenting  a  petition,  —  all  per 
ceived  that  this  case  was  the  parallel  of  their 
own,  and  "demanded  of  a  clergyman  that  he 
should  resist  his  temptations  to  a  sinful  neglect  of 
duty  as  well  as  themselves.  They  also  exclaim 
ed  against  the  unworthy  idea  of  yielding  up,  on 
demand,  those  whose  very  faithfulness  was  the 
origin  of  all  the  outcry.  A  whisper  was  circu 
lated  by  the  friends  of  the  clerical  appeal,  that 


struggle  was  useless,  that  they  were  sustained  not 
only  without  but  within  the  camp,  that  the  Ex 
ecutive  Committee  at  New  York  did  not  disap 
prove  of  their  doings,  and  that  it  had  been  decid 
ed  at.  head  quarters  "  to  cast  off  Garrison." 
This  facilitated  the  general  movement  of  every 
eye  to  New  York.  Societies  and  individuals 
loudly  protested  against  the  treachery  to  the 
cause,  the  treachery  to  their  own  religious  princi 
ples  of  action,  and  the  treachery  to  their  com 
rades  of  which  the  appeal  was  the  vehicle. — 
The  religious  world,  through  all  its  various  organs 
of  communication  with  the  universal  public,  set 
up  a  shout  of  triumph.  From  Maine  to  the  Po 
tomac,  and  from  the  Alantic  to  the  Ohio,  the 
" Appeal"  was  the  subject  of  conversation  with 
all  to  whom  the  name  of  abolition  was  familiar. 
The  Anti-Slavery  editors  in  every  state,  discerned 
the  spiritual  peril  as  clearly  as  if  it  had  been  a 
combat  before  the  bodily  eye,  and  alt  spoke  out 
for  the  right,  except  the  Emancipator,  the  organ 
of  the  Committee  at  New  York,  and  James  G. 
Birney,  then  editor  of  the  Philanthropist  in  Cin- 
cinati.  His  misapprehension  of  the  case  was  ex 
cused  by  those  whom  he  condemned,  and  ac 
counted  for  by  the  fact  of  his  great  distance  from 


the  seat  of  the  conflict.  The  appellants,  however, 
triumphantly  claimed  him  as  their  own.  Mr. 
Garrison,  and  the  editor  pro  tern,  of  the  Libera 
tor,  Mr.  Johnson,  were  forcible  and  conclusive  in 
their  treatment  of  the  case.  Mr.  Phelps,  whose 
services  as  general  agent  of  the  Massachusetts 
Society,  some  members  of  the  Boston  Female 
Anti- Slavery  Society  forseeing  this  emergency, 
had  made  great  exertions  to  secure,  came  boldly 
up,  to  fill  the  breach  where  his  presence  was  so 
needful  and  desirable.  The  vigor  of  his  assault 
quickly  dislodged  the  appellants  from  their  new 
position  "  in  a  brother's  pulpit."  But  he  receiv 
ed  no  thanks  for  his  good  service,  from  the  com 
mittee  at  New  York.  Every  church,  every  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  was  convulsed  by  the  struggle — 
still  no  voice  came  from  the  central  citadel. 
The  Clerical  appellants  meanwhile  went  en,  as 
diverging  lines  ever  will,  widening  the  distance 
between  themselves  and  rectitude.  The  Massa 
chusetts  Association  of  the  Ministry  had,  two 
months  previously,  given  currency  to  the  idea 
that  the  abolition  cause  had  wrought  deterioration 
in  the  female  character.  The  appellants  made 
this  idea,  too,  their  own.  Mr.  Woodbury,  now 
an  agent  of  the  American  Society,  the  same  who 


34 


had  thrown  down  the  gauntlet  to  the  pro- slavery 
church  in  1836,  chimed  in  with  the  appeal,  and 
suggested  in  addition,  that  the  opinions  of  Mr. 
Garrison  on  other  subjects  were  just  cause  of 
offence  in  him,  and  that  their  incidental  expres 
sion  in  the  Liberator  was  a  high  misdemeanor. 
The  appellants  eagerly  adopted  this  suggestion 
also ;  and  explained  to  the  public,  and  endeavor 
ed  to  convince  abolitionists,  that  the  toleration 
of  women  as  free  agents  in  the  cause  —  the  hold 
ing  George  Fox's  views  of  the  Sabbath  —  or  em 
bracing  the  principles  of  non-resistance,  afforded  a 
just  ground  for  excluding  the  offending  individu 
als  from  the  Societies.  "  Let  them  go  out  from 
among  us,"  they  said,  "  for  they  are  not  of  us  ; 
and  the  Massachusetts  Society  must  bare  a  new 
organ."  Mr.  Phelps,  at  this  time  standing  under 
a  load  of  ignominy  with  the  leaders  of  his  denom 
ination,  and  publicly  threatened  by  the  Recorder, 
their  periodical,  that  Mr.  Garrison's  ft  brother 
Phelps  "  would  soon  find  his  present  position  an 
unenviable  one,  succumbed  to  this  new  shape  of 
an  attack,  which,  under  its  first  guise,  he  had  met 
so  boldly.  Like  the  prince  of  Arabian  story,  he 
yielded  to  the  insulting  outcries  which  burst  out 
around  him, — turned  his  face  from  the  ascent, 


35 


and  at  that  moment  underwent  the  transformation 
to  which  the  prince's  change  into  a  little  black 
stone  by  the  way-side,  is  analogous. 

It  is  astonishing  that  these  men  should  not  have 
been  aware  that  on  the  abolition  platform  their  own 
sect  stood  but  <Jh  a  level  with  others,  and  that 
Sabbatarian  or  Anti-Sabbatarian,  man  or  woman, 
clergyman  or  layman,  voter  or  non-voter,  warrior 
or  non-resistant,  must  be  measured  by  their  con 
sistency  and  energy  in  applying  each  his  own 
religious  views,  to  effect  the  abolition  of  slave 
ry.  But  they  had  yielded  to  that  fear  of  man 
that  bringeth  a  snare,  and  suffered  themselves  to 
be  overcome  by  pro-slavery  influence,  scantily 
disguised  as  sectarian  zeal. 

This  pro-slavery  influence  was  wielded  by  the 
leaders  of  the  sect  to  which  the  appellants  belong 
ed,  with  a  skill  and  industry  which  the  Anti- 
Slavery  party  w^ould  have  done  well  to  imitate. 
This  pretended  zeal,  stimulated  as  it  was  by  the 
hope  of  securing  the  approbation  of  wealthy  and 
influential  men  of  business,  who  sustained  the 
double  character  of  panders  of  slavery  and  pillars 
of  churches,  was  not  without  its  reward.  The 
leading  commercial  and  religious  journals  played 
into  each  others'  hands,  and,  from  the  daily  and 


36 


weekly  press  of  that  period,  it  appears  that  great 
numbers  of  clergymen,  of  known  hostility  to  the 
cause,  had  contrived  to  signify  that  some  move 
ment  of  this  kind  would  afford  them  a  pretence 
for  joining  it,  while,  at  the  same  time,  such  a 
movement  would  operate  as  an  assurance  that  the 
cause  should  no  longer  be  urged  forward  with 
the  speed  and  effect  that  rouses  the  spirit  of  per 
secution.  Men  who  had  dreaded  suffering,  and 
felt  mortification  at  the  idea  of  becoming  follow 
ers  (so  they  understood  it)  of  the  bold,  plain, 
uncompromising,  untitled  Garrison,  hoped,  by 
means  of  this  stepping-stone,  to  escape  the  re 
proach  of  their  consciences,  without  sacrificing 
their  parishes  or  their  pride. 

The  aciive  appellants  were  but  two  in  number  ; 
but  from  time  to  time  they  kept  the  public  inform 
ed  of  the  encouragement  they  received.  One, 
who  entered  into  their  feelings  with  the  most  ar- 

O 

dent  sympathy,  was  the  Rev.  Charles  T.  Torrey, 
then  of  Providence.  He  declared  that  "  their 
appeal  gave  him  unmingled  satisfaction — that  it 
would  be  sustained  by  others  ;"  —  and  bade  them 
sl  thank  God  and  take  courage,  in  view  of  the 
Liberator's  abuse." 

As  weeks  went  on,  it  became  evident,  through 


the  columns  of  the  paper  in  which  the  clerical  ap 
peal  first  appeared,  that  the  cloak  of  bigotry  and 
intolerance  was  to  be  added  to  the  garment  of 
sectarian  zeal,  which  had  at  first  been  employed  to 
hide  their  want  of  attachment  to  the  cause. 
There  was  talk  of  a  "common  ground,"  which 
yet  must  not  be  profaned  by  the  feet  of  those  ab 
olitionists  who  were  not  of  one  particular  commun 
ion.  Great  preference  of  the  National  Society 
was  expressed,  (though  it  counted  as  many  here 
tics  among  its  numbers  as  did  the  Massachusetts 
Society  ;)  because  the  members  of  the  Executive 
Committee  chanced  to  be  members  also  of  sects 
which  the  appellants  considered  Orthodox.  Much 
exertion  was  made  in  the  Theological  Seminary, 
at  Andover,  to  obtain  recruits  for  this  new,  exclu 
sive  "common  ground,"  and  thirty-nine  young 
candidates  for  the  ministerial  office  came  up  to  its 
defence. 

Meanwhile,  the  claims  of  this  clerical  exclusive^ 
ness  were  adjudged  by  the  great  body  of  abolition 
ists,  to  be  in  an  attitude  of  antagonism  with  the 
principles  of  Freedom.  How  can  he  free  the 
slave,  they  argued,  who  is  occupied  in  imposing 
fetters  upon  the  free  ?  How  can  he  love  liberty, 
who  is  acting  in  defiance  of  her  first  principles  ? 
4 


38 


Are  not  things  which  are  equal  to  the  same  things 
equal  to  one  another  ? 

The  Massachusetts  Society  met  at  Worcester, 
to  take  action  upon  this  attempt  to  destroy  its 
broad  foundation  of  religious  freedom  and  tolera 
tion  ;  and,  disclaiming  the  exercise  of  judgment, 
in  their  associated  capacity,  upon  any  man's  pri 
vate  opinions,  the  members  deemed  it  their  duty 
to  brand  inconsistency  with  one's  own  standard  of 
action,  as  treachery  to  the  cause. 

Amasa  Walker,  a  man  peculiarly  qualified  to 
speak  to  such  a  question,  being  a  zealous  member 
of  the  same  sect  as  the  appellants,  manifested,  up 
on  this  occasion,  rectitude  and  steadfastness  wor 
thy  of  a  sect  so  nobly  founded,  and,  until  the 
present  day,  so  nobly  sustained.  He  explained 
the  causes  and  developed  the  real  character  of  the 
appeal,  stripping  it  of  its  mask  of  love  for  the 
slave,  and  zeal  for  the  church  of  God. 

Dr.  Osgood,  of  Springfield,  was  disposed  to  ad 
mit  the  justice  of  the  charge  of  harsh  language 
against  prominent  abolitionists,  but  he  made  an 
exception  in  favor  of  Mr.  Birney.  Pie  thought 
himself  as  thorough  as  it  was  possible  for  any  man 
to  be  in  the  cause.  He  had  labored  for  its  suc 
cess  wherever  he  went.  "  I  have,"  said  he, 


39 


"  pleaded  for  it  in  stage-coaches  and  steam-boats. 
I  have  argued  in  its  behalf  in  conversation.  / 
have  never  yet  introduced  it  into  my  pulpit : — if  I 
had  done  so,  I  should  have  grieved  away  some  of 
my  best  people." 

A  condemnation  was,  notwithstanding,  express 
ed  against  the  idea  that  one  man's  wishes  or  sense 
of  propriety,  are  the  proper  measure  of  the  rights 
and  duties  of  another. 

Being  thus  hindered  in  their  attempt  to  change 
the  nature  and  foundation  principles  of  the 
Massachusetts  Society,  the  appellants  strove  to 
destroy  it  by  forming  a  new  organization  on  the 
basis  of  sectarianism,  to  be  auxiliary  to  the  Na 
tional  Society.  Mr.  Phelps,  though  somewhat 
disappointed  at  the  result  of  the  whole  campaign, 
in  the  utter  discomfiture  of  clerical  abolitionism, 
and  vexed  that  the  Massachusetts  abolitionists 
insisted  upon  evidence  of  repentance  from  the  cler 
ical  appellants,  before  again  placing  confidence  in 
them,  was  slill  not  quite  prepared  to  relinquish 
his  hold  upon  the  old  society. 

This  unwillingness  was  strengthened  by  the  fact, 
that  the  strings  of  management  of  the  new  one  were 
not  proffered  to  his  hands.  When  he  learned 
that  the  call  for  a  convention  to  form  it  was  riot  a 


40 


free  and  general  one,  but  limited  to  those  who  were 
quite  decided  to  quit  the  Massachusetts  Society, 
and  that  the  important  arrangements  were  all  to 
be  settled  beforehand,  and  only  the  trifling  details 
left  to  the  discretion  of  the  Convention  ;  then, 
and  not  till  then,  he  publicly  warned  abolitionists 
against  putting  themselves  to  the  trouble  of  "  do 
ing  up  Mr.  Somebody's  details,"  and  expressed 
the  hope  that  the  few  towns  in  the  Commonwealth 
that  had  responded  to  the  new  movement,  might  re 
main  as  they  were,  a  few.  Orange  Scott,  one  of  the 
most  conspicuous  of  the  Methodist  abolitionists, 
exclaimed  against  the  narrow  exclusive  dividing 
spirit  which  was  at  work,  and  zealously  defended 
the  common  cause  from  its  attacks. 

Their  advice,  with  the  indefatigable  labors  of 
Mr.  Garrison,  cast  a  damp  upon  the  embryo  mis 
chief.  But,  excited,  as  Mr.  Phelps's  sympathies 
had  been,  for  his  clerical  brethren,  and  alarmed  as 
he  had  felt  at  the  outcry  of  heresy  they  had  rais 
ed  against  Mr.  Garrison,  he  could  not  go  on  in  the 
work,  as  aforetime,  with  a  free,  untroubled  soul. 
He  had  previously  entered  into  a  correspondence 
with  Professor  Smyth,  of  Maine,  a  friend  of  the 
clerical  appeal,  respecting  the  necessity  of  reform 
ing' the  Massachusetts  Society  of  its  characteristic 


41 


freedom,  and  the  means  by  which  that  reform 
could  be  effected  without  alarming  the  sagacious 
watchfulness  of  Mr.  Garrison  ;*  and  at  the  annu 
al  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Society,  warmly 
opposed  that  part  of  the  annual  report  which  con 
demned  the  appeal  as  treacherous  to  the  cause. 
Events  seldom  pass  for  what  they  are  worth, 
at  the  time  they  transpire  ;  and  these  signs  and 
tokens 


-which  denoted 


A  hot  friend  cowling, " 

seemed  inconsequential  to  most  of  those  who  ob 
served  them.  The  abolitionists  had  reposed  un 
bounded  confidence  in  Mr.  Phelps,  and  could  not 
brook  to  have  their  souls  darkened  by  suspicion  of 
one  so  well  beloved.  In  watching  the  train  of 
human  events,  how  often  are  we  admonished  to 
praise  no  man  unreservedly  while  yet  he  lives  ; — 
to  rest  our  hearts  upon  no  human  excellence  that  is 
not 

"Hallowed,  and  guarded  from  all  change  by  death." 


*  Clergymen,  he  intimated,  must  not  be  put  forward  to  do  it, 
as  in  that  case  Mr.  Garrison  would  have  a  handle  by  which  to  re 
pel  the  attempt;  but  laymen  must  be  sought  out  and  employed  for 
the  purpose. 

4* 


We  must  pause  here,  and  settle  in  our  mem 
ories  the  positions  of  individuals  and  societies  at 
this  period,  if  we  would  understand  the  times 
which  come  after.  We  must  take  the  bear 
ings  and  distances  of  the  cause  in  1837,  if  we 
would  possess  a  chart  for  our  safe  guidance 
among  the  shoals  and  quicksands  of  1839. 

First,  let  us  note  the  position  of  the  Execu- 
tive^ommittee_a^j[ewjx)rk.  Blind  to  the 
crisis  or~unequal  to  it,  they  labored  to  preserve 
neutrality  in  a  case  involving  the  preservation  or 
the  sacrifice  of  principle  ;  and  pronounced  the 
whole  affair  to  be  "  entirely  local— a  mere  Boston 
controversy.''  Of  the  three  tests  of  fidelity,  they, 
stood  firm  under  the  application  of  but  two. 
They  were  untrue  to  principles  in  keeping  silence 
at  such  a  moment,  but  they  were  not  positively 
and  openly  faithless  to  men,  and  they  vindicated 
the  broad  platform  of  the  original  Anti-Slavery 
agreement.  They  perceived  the  derangement 
that  a  hostile  and  prescriptive  organization  in  Mas 
sachusetts  would  occasion  in  the  whole  Anti-Slave 
ry  system  oforganized  action  and  did  not  recognize 
any  such  society  as  a  part  of  the  affiliation. 
But  the  feebleness  that  marked  their  course,  at  tjiat 
trying  crisis,  deprived  them  of  the  perfect  love 


43 


and  confidence  that  had  till  then  been  felt  in  them 
by  all  the  abolitionists.  This  feebleness  and  neu 
trality  was,  however,  a  recommendation  to  those 
whose  estimation  is  a  dispraise.  The  opposcr 
of  the  cause  instinctively  felt  that,  without  any 
change  in  his  own  position,  the  distance  between 
himself  and  the  New  York  Committee  was  some 
what  lessened  :  while  the  devoted  friends  were 
made  aware  that  that  committee,  notwithstanding 
its  activity  in  keeping  in  motion  the  smaller  ma 
chinery  of  the  cause,  and  its  ability  in  conduct 
ing  the  tract  and  book  department,  was  yet  the 
weak  point  of  the  whole  Anti-Slavery  array. 
All  attentive  beholders,  whether  friends  or  foes, 
were  taught,  by  the  observation  of  this  period, 
that  the  machinery  of  organization,  with  all  its 
systematized  and  mechanical  helps,  must  be  utter 
ly  unequal  to  obtain  emancipation,  unless  freedom 
be  the  moving  "  spirit  within  the  wheels;  "—that, 
however  efficient  may  be  the  appliances  and 
means  that  money  can  set  in  motion,  there  are 
moments  when  one  trumpet-blast  of  victorious 
truth,  were  worth  them  all.  The  friends  in 
Massachusetts  in  vain  continued  to  "  look  south 
ward  with  upbraiding  eye  ;" —  there  was  no  voice 
nor  any  that  answered  to  their  condemnation  of 


44 


the  base  metal  which  could  not  stand  the  furnace 
of  the  times.  They  therefore  made  their  own 
expression  of  opinion  the  more  emphatic,  and 
their  own  testimony  the  more  clear. 

The  Boston  Female  Society  bore  faithful  wit 
ness  to  the  truth,  notwithstanding  the  reluctance 
of  its  President,  Vice-President,  Treasurer,  and 
Recording  Secretary.  These  officers  ran  well 
while  they  fancied  the  enterprise  under  the  bless 
ing  and  direction  of  a  portion  of  the  ministry. 
But,  no  sooner  did  it  appear  that  they  must  ad 
vance  alone  and  self-sustained,  than  they  turned 
to  flight,  and  from  that  moment  became,  in  their 
measure,  an  obstacle  to  the  cause,  and  a  detri 
ment  to  the  society  hitherto  so  active. 

Let  us  give  one  more  glance  at  the  position  of 
individuals  at  this  period. 

The  appellants,  recreant  to  the  three  grounds 
of  fidelity  in  the  Anti-Slavery  cause,  fidelity  to 
the  principles — to  the  platform  —  and  to  their 
comrades,  were  announcing  their  intention  to 
weep  in  secret  places.  Mr.  Phelps,  faithful  to 
the  first  ground,  but  treacherous  to  the  two  last, 
was  endeavoring,  unknown  to  his  comrades  of  the 
Massachusetts  Board,  to  change  the  original 
character  of  the  Society,  and  at  the  same  time  to 


45 


sustain  the  office  of  its  General  Agent.  Mr.  Stan- 
ton,  the  most  prominent  Agent  of  the  New  York 
Committee  in  Massachusetts,  \vas  wanting  to  the 
fundamental  principle  of  immediateism,  in  keeping 
silence  on  the^rs^  ground  of  the  appeal  ; — to  the 
mutual  agreement  that  all  sects  were,  in  the  Anti- 
Slavery  cause,  on  a  common  platform,  in  keeping 
silence  on  the  second  ground  of  the  appeal  ;  and 
to  his  brethren  personally,  in  silently  seeing  them 
attacked  without  standing  with  them  on  the  de 
fensive.  Instead  of  this  three-fold  fidelity,  he 
was  declaring  it  to  be  impossible  to  "  screw  every 
body  up  to  this  high  notch  ;"  and  therefore  it  had 
better  not  be  attempted,  as  the  work  would  be 
done  at  last  by  men  who  had  not  this  devoted 
love  for  the  cause,  from  political  and  interested 
motives  ;  and  that  the  requisition  of  higher  ones, 
would  certainly  occasion  division.  The  faithful 
in  the  cause  were  earnestly  urging  him,  and  all 
who  were  thus  wanting  to  the  right,  to  insist 
on  the  most  impregnable  fidelity  and  the  most 
unshaken  constancy,  as  the  only  aid  worth  having, 
and  the  only  means  of  holding  the  mastery  over 
policy  and  selfishness  ;  and  solemnly  warning  him 
that,  when  that  division,  to  which  he  alluded, 
should  take  place,  the  short-sighted,  the  weak,  the 


46 


faltering,  the  treacherous,  the  unprincipled,  the 
base,  would  fall  back  together  ;  while  the  deep- 
thinking,  the  strong,  the  resolute,  the  faithful, 
the  well-grounded,  the  noble-souled,  would  close 
up  and  press  onward. 

The  position  of  the  Massachusetts  Society 
only  remains  to  be  considered.  It  ceased  to  de 
fray  the  expenses  of  the  Liberator  from  its  treas 
ury,  though  most  of  the  members  would  have  re 
joiced  to  continue  to  do  so.  But  they  respect 
ed  the  consciences  of  the  minority,  very  few  as 
they  believed  those  to  be  who  honestly  opposed 
the  paper,  and  determined,  since  freedom  only 
could  obtain  freedom,  at  all  events  to  avoid  the 
absurdity  of  infringing  on  "religious  liberty. 

They  concurred  with  Mr.  Garrison  in  the 
opinion  that  the  efficacy  of  the  paper  and  the 
consistency  of  the  society  would  be  best  preserv 
ed  by  the  cessation  of  the  pecuniary  connection, 
if  it  gave  pain  or  embarrassment  to  the  mind  of  a 
single  contributor  to  the  funds. 

This  did  not  greatly  mend  the  matter  to  those 
who  profaned  the  sacred  name  of  conscience,  by 
making  it  a  cloak  for  malice  and  for  weakness. 
Still  Mordecai  pat  in  the  king's  gate — still  it  was 
the  abolition  of  Massachusetts  which  sustained 
the  Liberator. 


47 


The  Society  received  the  natural  reward  of  its 
faithfulness,  in  the  increase  of  its  strength.  Full 
of  cheerful  constancy,  and  reposing  undiminished 
confidence  in  its  General  Agent,  whose  short-com 
ings  were  known  to  but  few,  it  pursued  its  course, 
rejoicing  in  freedom,  with  renewed  determination 
to  impart  her  life-giving  influence  to  the  enslaved. 
At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  National  Society, 
an  arrangement  was  made  to  obviate  that  clash 
ing  of  the  fiscal  concerns  and  the  interference  of 
agents  with  each  other's  track,  which  had  been  so 
troublesome  from  the  first.  By  this  arrangement, 
no  agents  were  to  labor  in  Massachusetts  but  in 
connection  with  the  wishes  of  the  State  Board  of 
officers,  and  under  their  direction.  With  this 
understanding,  ten  thousand  dollars,  were  to  be 
raised  during  the  year,  in  this  State,  in  quarterly 
payments,  for  the  central  treasury  at  New  York. 
Having  thus  cast  aside  every  weight  and  besetting 
sin,  the  society  girt  itself  afresh,  to  run  with  pa 
tient  swiftness  the  race  set  before  it. 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE    PLOT. 


Our  plot  is  ns  good  a  plot  as  ever  was  laid  ;  our  friends  true  and 
constant  ;  a  good  plot,  good  friends,  and  full  of  expectations  :  an 
excellent  plot;  very  good  friends.  *  *  *  Why  my  lord  of  YORK 
commends  the  plot,  and  the  general  course  of  the  action. 

SHAKSPEARE. 


The  difficulties  of  writing  the  history  of  the  past, 
are  greatly  enhanced  by  the  scantiness  of  the  ma 
terials  :  our  own  contemporaneous  history  on  the 
contrary,  seems  clogged  with  their  abundance. 
So  many  simultaneous  events,  seemingly  of  small 
consequence,  yet  all  having  an  important  bearing 
on  each  other,  and  proving,  in  reality,  the  hinges 
on  which  the  more  conspicuous  ones  turn  ; — so 
many  threads,  which  the  insufficiency  of  narra 
tion  at  once  to  combine,  compels  the  writer  to 
drop  for  a  time,  although  he  must  finally  travel 
back  to  pick  them  up,  or  the  connections  of  things 
will  but  imperfectly  appear;  — no  wonder  if  the 
Mexican  method  of  preserving  the  memory  of 


49 


events  by  pictures,  should  seem  preferable  to  our 
owru.  A  succession  of  paintings  seems  capable  of 
presenting  a  much  clearer  view  of  contemporane 
ous  transactions,  than  any  arrangement  of  pages. 
"  Narrative  is  linear — action  is  solid  ;"  and  \ve 
must  overcome  the  difficulties  of  conveying  the 
latter  through  means  of  the  former,  as  best  we  may. 
The  spirit  of  Freedom  had,  by  the  energy  of  its 
advent,  struck  terror  into  the  world  that  compre 
hended  it  not.  The  attempts  to  check  its  advance 
by  means  of  mobs,  were  but  as  the  spur  in  a  vic 
torious  charge.  The  policy  of  the  foes  of  Free 
dom  became  more  subtle.  It  was  now  their  aim, 
by  counterfeiting  the  voice  of  truth,  by  continual 
ly  substituting  a  false  issue  for  the  real  one,  and 
by  assuming  the  guise  of  zeal  for  the  institutions 
of  religion  and'governmentj  to  operate  influential- 
ly  and  as  a  check  upon  the  abolition  mind. — 
Though  their  first  attempt,  developed  in  the  pre 
ceding  chapter,  was,  on  the  whole,  a  signal  failure, 
owing  to  the  devoted  love  of  abolitionists  for  their 
cause  and  for  each  other,  yet  the  hatred  of  the 
New  England  opposition  seemed  to  deepen  as  the 
increase  of  light  and  love  exposed  its  malignity. 
The  position  of  the  ministry,  generally,  grew  more 
and  more  uneasy,  as  the  discrepancy  between  their 
5 


50 


claims  as  ambassadors  of  Christ,  and  the  character 
of  their  lives  as  opposed  to  the  requisitions  of  his 
gospel,  became  apparent. 

They  had,  from  the  very  commencement  of  the 
agitation,  professed  themselves  abolitionists  in  the 
abstract,  and  met  the  charge  of  inconsistency  in 
their  practice  by  strong  disapprobation  of  Mr.  Gar 
rison.  One  might  have  thought,  from  their  repre 
sentations,  that  Mr.  Garrison  possessed  a  power 
over  their  course,  by  which  he  could  actually  hin 
der  them  from  doing  right.  They  addressed  them 
selves  to  the  work  of  communicating  their  own 
prejudices  to  the  minds  of  their  congregations,  and 
greatly  misrepresented  both  Mr.  Garrison  and  the 
Liberator.  The  most  false  and  derogatory  reports 
were  circulated  as  to  his  Christian  and  moral  char 
acter.  His  blameless  and  excellent  life  nullified 
these  efforts  with  all  who  knew  him  ;  but  it  is  not 
wonderful  that  they  should  have  taken  effect  in 
minds  at  a  distance,  whose  only  avenues  to  infor 
mation  were  the  ones  which  this  malicious  course 
choked  up.  It  was  unhesitatingly  affirmed  that 
the  object  of  the  Liberator  was  to  abolish  the  office 
of  the  ministry  ;  though  its  pages  were  searched  in 
vain  for  any  evidence  of  such  an  object.  x  Noth 
ing  could  there  be  found  but  proofs  that  slavery 


51 


had  disqualified  the  great  majority  of  the  incum 
bents  of  that  office  from  exercising  it. 

It  was  triumphantly  told  that  the  Massachusetts 
Society  had  dropped  the  Liberator  —  that  Mr.  Gar 
rison  was  a  Fanny  W right  man  —  an  infidel  —  a 
Sabbath-breaker — a  bad  and  dangerous  man  — 
promulgating  the  doctrines  of  the  French  Jacob 
ins,  &c.  &tc. 

An  outcry  was  raised  by  the  enemy  without  the 
camp,  which  was  responded  to  by  the  confeder 
ates  within,  that  Mr.  Garrison  was  loading  the 
cause  with  a  burden  of  extraneous  topics.  All  the 
careful  observers  of  the  movement  were  aware  of 
the  falsity  of  this  -allegation,  and  testified  to  his 
habitual  avoidance  of  such  topics  in  Anti-Slavery 
meetings. 

In  fact,  such  discussions  were  always  introduced 
by  those  who  complained  of  them  the  loudest. 
All  the  anti-slavery  editors  were  in  the  allowed 
practice  of  incidentally  introducing  their  own  re 
ligious  and  other  opinions,  notwithstanding  their 
papers  were  the  organs  of  State  Societies,  and 
therefore  bound  to  more  caution.  But  it  was  made 
a  subject  of  accusation  against  Mr.  Garrison  when 
he  did  the  same,  though  his  paper  was  his  own, 
and  he  introduced  no  subjects  into  it  unless  they 


had  a  practical  bearing  on  the  cause,  and  were  at 
the  same  time  considered  debateable  in  all  sects. 
Others  might  introduce  column  after  column  of 
extraneous  matter:  he  was  publicly  accused,  for 
a  single  line.  Special  efforts  were  made  to  induce 
men  to  cease  to  subscribe  for  the  Liberator.  It 
was,  like  Socrates,  termed  a  corrupter  of  youth. 
Men  of  high  ecclesiastical  standing  declared  that 
they,  though  "as  much  abolitionists  as  any  one 
else,"  would  never  unite  with  the  movement  for 
abolition,  as  long  as  Mr.  Garrison  led  the  van. 

The  Rev.  Joel  Hawes,  D.  D.,  of  Connecticut, 
was  one  of  these.  Judging  of  them  from  their  om 
inous  silence,  when  sectarianism  had  been  most  vi 
olent  in  its  attacks  on  the  integrity  of  the  cause, 
he  felt  a  drawing  towards  the  Executive  Commit 
tee  at  New  York,  and  fancied  them  altogether 
such  ones  as  himself. 

His  adhesion  had  been  hailed  with  joy  by  ab 
olitionists.  They  soon  found  reason  to  know  that 
such  adherents  are  more  ruinous  than  open  ene 
mies,  to  the  cause  they  espouse. 

He  travelled  in  Massachusetts,  shortly  after  the 
New  England  Convention  of  1838,  memorable  as 
the  scene  of  the  first  attempt  to  exclude  women 
from  membership  in  anti-slavery  meetings. 


53 


A  number  of  clergymen  of  his  own  denomina 
tion,  headed  by  Mr.  Torrey  and  Mr.  Phelps,  had 
most  inconsistently  labored  to  vote  away  the  free 
dom  and  the  rights  of  the  female  members  of  that 
Convention.  So  indefinite  were  their  ideas  on 
the  whole  great  subject  of  rights,  that  they  over 
looked  the  obvious  thought,  that  no  general  anti- 
slavery  convocation  could  take  such  ground  with 
out  denying  the  fundamental  principle  that  brought 
them  together.  In  the  horror  of  their  great  dark 
ness  on  the  subject  of  "  womcui's  rights,"  they 
trampled  on  human  rights,  and  the  rights  of  mem 
bership,  in  the  persons  of  those  women  whom  they 
labored  to  exclude. 

They  also  deeply  wounded  the  feelings  of  the- 
great  body  of  the  men  there  present  ;  few  of  whom 
but  had  occasion  to  acknowledge,  with  grateful  af 
fection  and  respect,  how  much  a  mother,  wife  or 
sister  had  done,  in  the  difficult  years  that  were 
past,  to  help  and  strengthen  them  in  the  labors  and 
sacrifices  of  the  cause. 

Women  are  so  accustomed  to  suffering  under 
the  many  indigniiies  which  men  unconsciously  in 
flict,  that  in  this  instance  they  felt  less  keenly  for 
themselves  than  did  their  brethren  for  them,  the 
tyrannical  attempt  to  assume  their  responsibilities. 


54 


The  refusal  of  the  Convention  to  eject  them 
from  their  seats,  with  the  excellent  memorial  of 
its  Committee,  Mr.  Johnson,  Miss  Kelley  and  Mr. 
St.  Clair,  to  the  ecclesiastical  associations  of  New- 
England,  excited  much  indignation  among  the 
ministry,  with  which  Dr.  Hawes  was  in  a  state  of 
mind  to  sympathize.  After  his  return  to  Connec 
ticut,  he  stated,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  that  he 
had  recently  visited  Massachusetts,  and  conversed 
with  several  leading  abolitionists  there:  that  in 
reference  to  the  doings  of  the  New  England  Con 
vention,  they  declared  that  "  they  could  no  long 
er  work  in  such  a  team,"  and  that,  unless  the 
Massachusetts  Society  would  take  ground  in  op 
position  to  this  action  of  the  Convention,  there 
must  and  should  be  a  new  organization.  Dr. 
Hawes  added,  that  if  he  resided  in  Massachusetts 
he  should  be  with  them  in  favor  of  such  a  move 
ment. 

One  spark  of  true  love  of  Freedom  —  the  feeb 
lest  real  desire  to  impart  it  to  the  enslaved,  would 
have  overpowered,  in  his  heart,  this  spirit  of  the 
clerical  appeal,  and  forbade  him  to  identify  him 
self  with  any  such  effort  to  subvert  the  broad 
foundations  of  the  cause  or  to  exclude  any  who 
had  borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  earlier  abo 
lition  day. 


55 


Notwithstanding  all  the  efforts  of  calumny,  big 
otry  and  tyranny,  Mr.  Garrison  still  led  the  van. 
There  was  no  help  for  it.  It  was  a  necessity  grow 
ing  out  of  the  nature  of  the  case,  and  which  could  not 
be  avoided,  however  much  the  foe  might  desire  it, 
and  the  false  friends  labor  to  accommodate  them. 
There  is  an  efficacy  in  treacherous  concealment, 
to  "  be-darken  and  confound  the  mind  of  man," 
or  these  Parleys  and  Flatterwells  must  have  dis 
cerned  the  philosophical  impossibility.  But,  fail 
ing  to  do  so,  they  went  on  with  their  secret  de 
vices. 

In  all  these  efforts,  the  friends  of  the  clerical 
appeal  joined  with  great  zeal.  They  had  announc 
ed  the  intention  of  weeping  in  secret  places,  be 
cause  of  its  ill  success.  They  were  better  than 
their  word  ;  not  only  weeping,  but  laboring  in  se 
cret  places.  Mr.  Torrey,  who  had,  in  the  mean 
time  removed  from  Providence  to  Salem,  was  par 
ticularly  active.  He  instituted  a  vigorous  secret 
correspondence  to  facilitate  the  establishment  of 
a  new  anti-slavery  paper  in  Massachusetts.  He 
was  now  the  Secretary  of  the  Essex  Co.  Society, 
and,  as  such,  used  all  the  influence  in  his  power 
to  misrepresent  and  injure  the  Liberator;  he  inti 
mated  that  Mr.  Garrison  had  become  insufferably 
idle  and  negligent,  that  his  paper  was  left  to  print- 


56 


er's  boys  and  any  body  to  fill  up,  that  it  was  de 
moralizing  in  its  tendency  and  miserably  deficient 
in  talent  ;  and  in  conformity  with  these  declara 
tions,  he  instructed  the  agents  of  the  county  soci 
ety  to  recommend  other  papers  in  the  towns 
where  they  labored.  Having  done  this*  he  urged 
the  necessity  of  a  new  paper,  because  there  was 
such  a  prejudice  against  the  Liberator,  that  it  was 
impossible  to  get  it  into  sufficient  circulation,  even 
to  advertise  the  county  meetings. 

He  was  aided  in  sowing  the  new-paper  seed,  by 
Mr.  Phelps  and  Mr.  St.  Clair.  The  latter  will  be 
recollected  as  the  neophyte  of  the  Massachusetts 
Annual  Meeting  of  1837.  The  apparent  sincerity 
and  heartiness  of  hrs  appearance  there  had  recom 
mended  him  to  an  agency.  His  summary  absolu 
tion  of  all  the  sins  of  the  Liberator,  past,  present, 
and  to  come,  was  pardoned,  as  prompted  by  a  good 
feeling,  though  too  carelessly  expressed.*  It  seem 
ed  impossible  to  believe  that  he  was  insincere, 
though  certainly  indiscreet. 

In  their  progress  through  the  country  on  anti- 
slavery  missions,  the  agents  of  the  Massachusetts 

*  "  Of  Mr.  Garrison  I  will  say,  as  the  Pope  said  of  his  minion, 
I  will  absolve  him  of  all  the  sins  he  ever  has  committed,  or  ever 
will  commit." — Speech  of  Mr.  St.  Clair  in  1837. 


57 


Society  never  failed,  from  the  beginning,  to  learn 
how  hard  it  is  to  be  reproached  for  a  righteous 
man's  name's  sake.  To  appreciate  the  force  of 
their  temptation,  let  the  beholder,  for  a  moment, 
place  himself  in  their  situation.  It  is  in  the  pow 
er  of  the  minister  in  almost  every  parish,  to  pro 
cure  them  a  hearing,  —  but  he  is  in  combination 
with  his  brethren  to  "put  clown  Garrison."  Is  it 
wonderful  that,  instead  of  silencing  the  bigot  or 
the  slanderer  with  the  assertion  "  he  is  a  good 
man  and  a  faithful  abolitionist,  and  his  opinions  on 
other  subjects  are  no  more  our  business  than  your 
own,"  they  should  have  striven  to  repel  their  as 
sailants  by  endeavoring  to  draw  aline  of  distinc 
tion  between  him  and  themselves?  Parallel  to 
this  was  the  course  of  Peter  ;  unrepented  of,  it 
deepens  into  the  daiker  dye  that  marks  a  Judas. 
When  men  who  sought  a  pretence  to  avoid  the 
consideration  of  the  cause,  were  told  that  the 
Massachusetts  Board  of  Managers  differed  as 
widely  as  themselves  from  Mr.  Garrison's  opin 
ions  on  other  subjects,  their  intolerance  forbade 
them  to  credit  the  statement.  If  the  Agents 
ventured  to  cast  freely  off,  in  the  name  of  the 
Society,  all  responsibility  for  Mr.  Garrison's  indi 
vidual  opinions,  and  to  vindicate  the  rectitude  and 


58 


energy  of  his  abolition  course  from  the  begining, 
they  were  obliged  to  endure  the  reproach  of 
being  "  tools  of  Garrison,"  and  singing  his  praises, 
when  they  should  rather  be  employed  in  remov 
ing  such  a  stumbling-block  out  of  the  path  of 
"good  men."  A  truly  noble  soul,  thus  spurred 
up  to  the  encounter,  would  have  exclaimed  in  the 
spirit  of  Burger  :  — 

"  Tlmnk  Heaven  for   song  and  praise,  that  I  can 
Thus  sing  the  song  of  the  faithful  man  !" 

The  enemy,  thus  met,  would  have  ceased  to 
play  so  ineffectual  a  string  ;  but,  perceiving  the 
weakness  of  the  agents  of  this  year,  he  never 
ceased  to  have  recourse  to  it. 

Let  not  those  who  have  never  been  tried  in 
such  a  furnace,  condemn,  without  pardon  and  pity, 
those  whose  nobility  of  spirit  was  not  equal  to 
pass  the  assay. 

There  appears  to  have  been,  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Phelps,  and  the  other  agents  of  this  period,  an 
inability  to  comprehend  or  appreciate  the  just 
and  straight-forward  course  of  the  Massachusetts 
Board,  with  whom  they  were  associated,  as 
well  as  a  consciousness  that  it  would  never 
permit  its  sanction  to  be  used  for  their  purposes. 


59 


They  therefore  carefully  kept  their  operations  se 
cret  from  the  Board,  while  they  were  using  its 
funds  and  sanction  to  carry  them  on,  in  conjunc 
tion  with  Mr.  Torrey,  and  Mr.  Stanton,  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  Executive  Committee  at  New  York. 
-All  the  Summer  and  Autumn  of  1838,  the  scheme 
for  a  new  paper  was  thus  secretly  carried  on. 
Mr.  Torrey  wrote  afterwards  to  a  friend,  "  the 
clergymen  throughout  the  State  have  been  sound 
ed  ;  and  they  are  for  it,  to  a  man." 

The  plan  of  a  new  paper,  to  be  under  their 
own  dictation,  and  in  an  attitude  of  opposition  to 
the  man  and  to  the  paper  whom  their  misrepre 
sentations  had  made  odious,  could  not  fail  to  be 
approved  by  the  ministry  ;  but  to  abolitionists, 
a  different  form  of  introduction  was  found  neces 
sary.  To  them  it  was  represented  that  it  would 
aid  the  Liberator,  and  that  possibly  Mr.  Garrison 
might  be  induced  to  become  the  editor.  Its  com 
parative  cheapness,  too,  was  an  inducement  to 
some  honest  minds,  who  were  unaware  of  its  pur 
pose  to  effect  a  division  in  their  ranks. 

More  than  a  year  had  elapsed  since  the  cleri 
cal  appeal  conspiracy.  Some  of  the  apellants 
had  become  officers  of  county  Societies.  Cer 
tain  of  their  brethren  in  spirit,  as  well  as  in  the 


60 


ministry,  had  taken  the  lead  in  town  Societies  ; — 
a  creeping  movement  was  in  this  way  going  on 
among  them,  to  get  the  control  of  the  organiza 
tions  ;  and,  co-operating  with  it,  were  the  young 
theologians  who  had  aided  the  old  attempt  against 
the  cause  ;  now,  some  of  them,  as  the  occupants 
of  pulpits,  rejoicing  in  the  opportunity  to  lend 
their  aid  te  the  new  one. 

Mr.  Phelps,  in  whom  general  confidence  was 
yet  unimpaired,  was  every  where  warm  in  his 
eulogies  of  Mr.  Torrey's  diligence  in  the  cause. 
But  those  who  had  opportunities  of  observing  his 
course  closely,  were  made  aware  that  mischief 
and  diligence  are  by  no  means  incompatible. 
His  labors  were  unremitting  to  weaken  the  bonds 
of  relationship  between  the  County  Society  and 
the  State  Society.  The  abolitionists  of  Essex, 
generally,  saw  not  the  tendency  and  design  of 
these  efforts.  They  could  be  made  without  sus 
picion,  as  the  National  Society  had  ever  been  a 
favorite  with  Massachusetts  men,  with  whom  it 
originated,  and  who  constitute  the  largest  por 
tion  of  its  efficient  members.  Such  men  could 
not  readily  conceive  of  the  possibility  of  acting 
in  their  County  capacity  or  their  National  capac 
ity,  in  opposition  to  themselves  in  their  State 


61 


capacity.  But  the  active  brains  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  Executive  Committee  at  New  York,  to 
gether  with  the  Secretaries  of  the  Massachusetts 
and  the  Essex  County  Societies,  had  devised  and 
cherished  the  idea  of  such  a  change,  though  it 
would  necessarily  convert  the  affiliated  Anti- 
Slavery  system  from  a  harmonious  whole,  into 
jarring  and  discordant  divisions.  A  society  had, 
before  this,  been  formed  in  the  western  part 
of  the  State,  to  be  directly  auxiliary  to  the  Na 
tional  Society.  This  circumstance  was  unnotic 
ed  at  the  time,  except  by  a  few,  who  waited  for 
the  light  of  future  events  by  which  to  in:erpret 
its  meaning. 

Such  disunion  and  derangement  could  not  be 
easily  effected  in  the  region  where  the  free  spirit 
first  laid  the  broad  foundations  of  its  organized  ac 
tion.  It  was  necessary  to  cast  about  for  Some 
plausible  ground  on  which  to  create  division  of 
feeling,  and  to  proceed  upon  it  with  the  utmost 
caution. 

Public  sentiment  had  become  so  far  changed  in 
Massachusetts  by  the  eight  yenrs'  waifare  of  abo 
litionists,  that  ministers  were  almost  as  liable  to 
public  censure  for  an  open  pro-slavery  course,  as 
for  an  open  advocacy  of  Freedom.  They,  of  all 
6 


men,  were,  in  one  sense,  justified  in  the  custom 
ary  declaration  that  they  were  "  as  much  anti-sla 
very  as  others;"  for  they  kept  careful  watch  of 
the  times,  that  they  might  not  vary  from  them 
materially.  With  all  their  prudence  and  caution, 
they  found  this  double  public  a  difficult  monster 
to  manage.  Though,  as  a  body,  they  had  under 
gone  no  change  of  feeling,  they  perceived  that 
their  efforts  to  check  the  progress  of  Freedom, 
must  be  made  more  carefully  than  ever  ;  and  they 
adopted  a  tone  of  great  solicitude  for  "  the  poor 
slave." 

Pity,  even  when  unfeigned,  is  not  principle, 
any  more  than  "  American  Union"*  was  anti-sla 
very  ;  and  in  this  instance  u  poor  slave  "  was  but 
the  synonym  for  hostility  to  the  Massachusetts  So 
ciety.  Well  has  cant  been  called  "the  second 
power  of  a  lie." 

The  additional  ground  on  which  a  division  of 
feeling  preparatory  to  the  projected  outward  di 
vision  was  attempted,  was  the  assertion,  sedulous 
ly  disseminated  by  Mr.  St.  Clair,  Mr.  Torrey,  Mr. 
Stanton,  and  Mr.  Phelps,  that  the  Massachusetts 
Society  was  a  "no-government  Society."  Of 
this  the  only  proof  was,  that  it  had  not  ostracised 

*  A  scheme  so  called,  for  benefiting  the  colored  race,  without 
giving  offence  by  the  mention  of  Freedom,  or  Human  Rights. 


63 


Mr.  Garrison.  It  was  argued  that  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  Massachusetts  Society  required  the 
use  of  every  means  sanctioned  by  law,  humanity 
and  religion  ;  therefore  Mr.Garrison  and  all  other 
Non-Resistants  who  decline  exercising  the  elec 
tive  franchise,  were,  by  the  terms  of  the  Consti 
tution,  excluded  from  the  Society. 

"Political  action,"  adverted  to  in  the  Constitu 
tion,  now  had  a  new  definition  affixed  to  it.  It 
was  defined  by  one  of  this  new  school  to  mean 
poll-itical  action,  or  action  at  the  polls. 

This  logic,  though  very  efficacious  among  those 
who  had  rather  see  the  battle  rage  round  the  polls 
than  round  the  pulpit,  produced  but  little  effect 
on  the  real  abolitionists.  "  Law  and  humanity 

and  religion  ;"  they  said "  Well !  these  must, 

by  the  Constitution  of  the  Society,  conjunctively 
agree  upon  the  means  to  be  employed,  and  each 
man  was  of  course  to  be  his  own  judge  of  their  re 
quisitions  ;  for  there  never  would  have  been  a 
Constitution  or  a  Society  on  any  other  understand 
ing.  Law  !  Well ;  the  law  sanctions  my  restora 
tion  of  a  fugitive  slave,  should  I  deem  such  a  pro 
pitiation  of  the  master  likely  to  produce  a  happy 
effect  in  hastening  a  general  emancipation.  Am 
1  therefore  bound  to  do  it  ?  No  !  for  my  human 
ity  and  religion  interpose  their  veto.  But,  what  if 


64 


Mr.  Garrison's  humanity  and  religion  forbid  him 
to  vote  ?  /  cannot  see  why  they  should,  but  that's 
his  look-out  as  an  individual  —  not  mine  as  an  ab 
olitionist  : —  and  the  Constitution  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Society  covers  us  both." 

Such  plain  blunt  reasonings  could  put  to  flight 
the  assumption  that  voting  at  the  polls  was  a  test 
of  membership  :  but  of  course  it  did  but  increase 
the  bitterness  of  feeling  of  those  who  sought  a 
cause  of  offence  against  the  Society,  to  find 
none. 

That  Mr.  Garrison  was  personally  aimed  at, 
and  the  Massachusetts  Society  also,  because  it 
would  not  consent  to  his  ignominious  expulsion, 
no  one  doubted,  who  was  at  the  receipt  of  cler 
ical  custom.  The  on  dits  were  plentiful,  au 
thenticated  and  conclusive.  "  Garrison  has  too 
much  influence,"  said  one.  "•  We  must  take 
it  down  little  by  little."  "  Have  you  got  Garrison 
down  yet  ?"  said  another  ;  "  we  are  ready  to  come 
in  when'  he  is  out  of  the  way."  "All  the  Mas 
sachusetts  meetings  are  mere  Garrison-glorifi 
cations,"  said  a  third  ;  "  they  forget  the  poor 
slave."  "  Oh,  the  Massachusetts  Society  is  the 
mere  creature  of  Garrison,"  said  a  fourth.  (t  So 
many  good  abolitionists  as  there  are  in  the  State, 


opposed  to  him,  why  nol  get  rid  of  him  at  once  ?" 
said  the  outside  row.  "All  in  good  time  —  a  new 
paper  first,  as  the  organ  of  the  Society  —  and  we 
can  make  advantageous  changes  in  the  Board  of 
Managers  also,  as  they  wish  to  resign,"  — replied 
the  inner  circle,  that  were  most  closely  hemming 
round  the  Massachusetts  Society,  with  hostility  in 
the  disguise  of  friendship. 

Charitable  judgment  is  an  excellent  thing. 
Possibly,  Arnold  thought  that  the  revolution 
ary  principles  might  be  promoted  by  giving 
up  Washington  to  the  discontents  of  the  factious, 
and  ihe  demands  of  the  foe  ;  and  exactly  the  same 
possibility  exists  that  these  men  of  great  profes- 
sJons  and  hitherto  unattainted  names,  \vere  sincere 
blunderers,  —  not  treacherous  apostates.  An  ex 
cellent  thing  in  its  place,  is  charitable  judgment. 
Whether  its  place  be  to  refuse  to  see  or  to  sum  up 
evidence,  admits  of  controversy. 

The  accusations  against  the  Massachusetts  So 
ciety,  however,  appeared,  on  evidence,  to  be  un 
founded.  -  Its  Board  of  Managers  had  issued  an 
address  to  abolitionists  preparatory  to  the  political 
campaign,  and  had  concentrated  their  agents  upon 
the  fourth  Congressional  District,  where  the  po 
litical  parties  were  so  nicely  matched  against  each 


66 


other,  that  the  abolitionists,  though  but  the  dust 
of  the  balance,  might,  it  was  hoped,  by  successive 
defeats  of  the  election,  at  length  procure  a  candi 
date  from  one  or  the  other  party  on  whom  they 
could  unite.  This  one  fact  of  the  personal  labors 
and  concentration  of  effort  for  political  effect  on 
the  part  of  the  Managers  of  the  Society,  present 
ed  itself  to  every  mind  and  neutralized  the  mis 
representations  that  were  so  industriously  circu 
lated.  In  reality,  the  whole  force  of  the  Society 
had  been  bent  to  this  one  point  ;  and  the  Board, 
knowing  that  the  County  Societies  were  deeply 
pledged  in  the  matter  of  funds,  relied  upon  aboli 
tionists  in  their  county  capacity  to  raise  the  mon 
ey  now  due  to  the  National  Society,  on  the  Mas 
sachusetts  pledge. 

At  this  juncture,  one  of  the  faithful  friends  in 
Anclover,  was  startled  by  the  reception  of  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Torrey,  so  explicit  as  to  rouse  him  at 
once  to  a  perception  of  the  meaning  and  tenden 
cies  of  things,  which,  till  then,  had  escaped  his 
notice.  The  letter  dwelt  on  the  great  influence  of 
Mr.  Garrison  in  Massachusetts,  and  thence  ar 
gued  that  it  would  not  be  safe  to  attack  him  or 
the  Liberator  openly  ;  —  on  the  great  need  of  a 
new  paper;  —  which  he,  (Mr.  TorreyJ  had  as- 


67 


certained  by  sounding  the  clergymen  throughout 
the  State  ;  and  they  were  for  it  to  a  man.  "  Now, 

Brother  ,  have  on  a  full  delegation  at  the 

Annual  Meeting,  at  10  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
prepared  to  stay  two  days.  Have  them  pledged 
to  go  for  the  new  paper,  and  to  spar  the  annual 
report,  and  we  will  show  them  how  it  is  done." 

Upon  the  reception  of  this  letter,  those  who 
had  been  wont  to  keep  watch  and  ward  over 
the  interests  of  the  cause  in  Essex,  met  and 
decided  to  communicate  instantly  with  other 
friends,  that,  if  possible,  the  evil  might  be  sub 
dued  in  this  stage  of  its  progress. 

Dr.  Farns worth,  of  Middlesex,  with  whose  own 
observation  and  experience  their  intelligence  har 
monized,  instantly  suggested  to  Mr.  Garrison  the 
idea  of  removing  all  their  pretensions  for  such  a 
paper  by  issuing  a  small  cheap  sheet  of  exclu 
sively  Anti-Slavery  matter.  Mr.  Garrison,  from 
whom,  though  in  almost  daily  communication 
with  Mr.  Phelps,  Mr.  St.  Clair  and  Mr.  Stanton, 
their  whole  plan  had  been  carefully  kept,  could 
hardly  credit  so  treacherous  a  proceeding. 

Had  an  honest  desire  for  a  new  paper  been  en 
tertained,  he,  surely,  whose  note  of 'joyous  exulta 
tion  had  welcomed  the  appearance  of  every  new 


68 


anti-slavery  periodical,  should  have  been  among 
the  first  whose  aid  was  sought;  and,  that  the  plan 
had  not  reached  his  ears,  seemed  to  him  to  prove 
conclusively,  that  at  least  those  brethren  of  the 
Society  with  whom  he  had  daily  intercourse,  could 
not  be  engaged  in  it.  Relying  on  Dr.  Farns- 
worth's  good  judgment,  he,  however,  decided  to 
issue  the  specimen  number  of  the  periodical  pro 
posed. 

But,  as  day  after  day  brought  fresh  proof  of  a 
skilfully  arranged  plan  of  secret  action  against  the 
Massachusetts  Society,  his  mind  misgave  him  as 
to  the  efficiency  of  any  paper  he  might  issue,  to 
stay  its  progress,  and  he  relinquished  the  idea. 

Dr.  Farnsworth,  meanwhile,  receiving  no  infor 
mation  of  this,  continued  diligently  to  prepare  the 
way  in  Middlesex  County  for  the  expected  sheet. 
Of  these  labors,  the  enemies  of  the  Liberator  took 
advantagCj  and  artfully  represented  his  honest  ef 
forts  for  a  paper  which  should  subserve  the  pend 
ing  election,  and,  at  the  same  time  remove  all  pre 
tence  for  setting  on  foot  an  influence  hostile  to  the 
Liberator,  as  a  part  of  their  own  plan. 

Singular  symptoms  were  noticed  in  the  politi 
cal  management  of  the  Fourth  District.  Without 
consulting  either  the  Massachusetts  or  the  Middle^ 


69 


sex  County  Board,  Mr.  Stanton  undertook  the 
task  of  determining  on  whom  the  abolitionists 
should  scatter  their  votes.  Somewhat  remark 
able  was  his  selection  of  the  Rev.  J.  T.  Wood- 
bury, —  the  man  who,  in  1836,  had  thrown 
down  the  gauntlet  to  the  pro-slavery  church  ; 
and,  in  1837,  lacked  the  moral  force  to  sustain 
the  pressure  of  the  antagonism  he  had  impul 
sively  sought;,  the  man  against  whose  com 
mission  as  a  local  agent  by  the  New  York  Exec 
utive  Committee,  the  Massachusetts  Board  for 
mally  remonstrated  when  they  found  him  a  par 
ticipant  in  the  clerical  appeal. 

Deeper  solicitude  for  the  cause  would  have 
shown  him  tliat  men  who  fail  in  the  "cushioned 
seat  ecclesiastical,"  cannot  faithfully  discharge  the 
equally  weighty  responsibilities  of  the  Congres 
sional  one.  The  evil  considerations  that  tempting 
ly  beset  the  latter,  are  as  numerous — their  angelic 
disguises  as  complete.  But  Mr.  Stanton 's  own 
course,  during  that  year,  had  not  been  such  as  to 
make  his  soul  more  keenly  alive  to  the  sacred 
beauty  of  fidelity. 

Dr.  Farnsworth's  continually  increasing  knowl 
edge  of  the  machinations  now  on  foot,  increased 
his  sense  of  the  necessity  of  a  counteracting  influ* 


70 


ence  ;  and,  with  a  faithfulness  which  was  undamp 
ed  by  the  apparent  neglect  which  had  met  his  first 
warning,  he  continued  to  urge  on  the  members  of 
the  Massachusetts  Board,  the  necessity  of  a  new 
cheap  periodical,  as  their  organ,  to  be  edited  by 
Mr.  Garrison  ;  monthly  if  they  thought  best,  though 
in  his  judgment  a  weekly  issue  would  more  effectual 
ly  remove  the  pretences  of  those  who  were  laboring 
for  the  destruction  of  the  Liberator. 

When  this  proposition  was  formally  presented 
to  the  Board  by  Mr.  Garrison,  Mr.  Phelps  chanced 
to  be  absent ;  but  Mr.  Eayrs,  a  member  with 
whom  Mr.  Phelps  was  on  terms  of  confidence 
which  he  did  not  extend  to  all  the  other  members, 
remarked  that  it  would  be  better  to  postpone  any 
action  of  this  kind,  as  there  would  probably  be 
changes  in  the  Board  at  the  annual  meeting. 
So  innocent  were  some  of  the  members  of  the 
Board  of  any  knowledge  of  what  was  practising 
against  them,  and  so  repugnant  was  suspicion  to 
their  natures,  that  those  of  them  whose  eyes  had 
not  been  recently  opened  by  personal  experiences, 
honestly  supposed  that  such  a  paper  might  satis 
fy  the  alleged  demand  ;  and,  after  a  few  days'  de 
lay,  on  account  of  Mr.  Phelps's  absence,  it  was  de 
cided  to  issue  three  thousand  copies  ofa  specimen 


71 


number,  Messrs.  Garrison,  Phillips  and  Quincy 
to  be  an  editorial  committee.  On  learning  this, 
Mr.  Phelps  said,  with  much  agitation,  that  such  a 
paper  would  by  no  means  answer  the  demand. 
His  words  and  his  manner  were  a  sufficient  assur 
ance  that  the  plot  had  gone  too  far.  to  be  arrested 
by  any  possible  effort  of  the  Massachusetts  Board, 
and  all  their  energies  were  now  bent  to  the  pain 
ful  task  of  hastening  its  complete  development. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    WARNING. 

The  task  of  such  an  editor,  Mr.  President,  is  an  arduous  and 
thankless  one.  He  must  shield  his  friends  by  movements  for  which 
they  will  be  apt  to  censure  him.  He  must  save  the  cause  by  the 
very  blows  from  which  the  apparently  judicious  will  anticipate  its 
annihilation.  He  must  stand  on  an  eminence  from  which  he  can 
see  what  other  men  cannot  see.  He  must  be  eyes  to  the  blind, 
whose  want  of  eye-sight  will  lead  them  to  m;ike  war  upon  their 
benefactor.  He  must  rouse  men  from  their  dangerous  sleep,  who, 
while  they  begin  to  see  men  as  trees  walking,  will  murmur  because 
they  are  waked,  and  instead  of  thanking  their  deliverer,  find  fault 
with  the  rudeness  that  disturbed  them,  and  assume  to  give  directions 
when  they  should  be  beginning  to  learn.  WILLIAM  GOODELL. 

TIME,  which  waits  for  no  man,  but  keeps  on, 
with  even  foot-fall,  whether  witness  of  right  or 
wrong,  frankness  and  openness,  or  chicanery  and 
intrigue,  brought  round  the  year  1839. 

Mr.  Torrey,  who  had  represented  his  county 
as  crying  out  for  a  new  paper,  till  possibly  the  echo 
of  his  own  voice  might  have  led  him  to  think  his 
testimony  true,  now  found  a  feeling  waking  up  in 
Old  Essex  that  he  had  not  anticipated.  The  wom 
en  there,  with  whom,  in  the  spirit  of  a  true  mus- 


73 


sulman,  he  bad,  a  few  months  previous,  consider 
ed  it  defilement  to  sit  in  Convention,  had  always 
been  most  effectual  helpers  of  the  financial  depart 
ment  of  the  cause.  Some  of  them  had  been 
among  the  earliest  laborers  ;  and,  experienced  in 
observing  the  pertinacity  with  which  the  enemy, 
from  the  beginning,  had  striven  to  possess  himself 
of  the  fortress,  by  striking  down  the  warder  of  the 
gate,  were  startled  by  Mr.  Torrey's  great  zeal  for 
a  new  paper.  They  compared  it  with  his  hatred 
of  the  Liberator,  so  manifest  during  the  clerical 
appeal  controversy,  and  took  note,  from  time  to 
time,  of  the  manner  in  which  he  argued  this  new 
necessity. 

They  found  that,  like  the  Colonization  Society, 
the  necessity  had  two  faces ;  one  for  the  real  and 
the  other  for  the  pretended  abolitionist.  They 
saw  that  this  "  necessity  "  was  founded  on  preju 
dice  against  the  Liberator,  as  the  Colonization  So 
ciety  rests  upon  prejudice  against  the  free  man  of 
color. 

"  Oh,  surer  than  suspicion's  hundred  eye?, 
Is  that  fine  sense,  which,  to  the  pure  in  heart, 
By  mere  nppugnnncy  of  their  own  goodness, 
Reveals  the  approach  of  evil." 

They  decided  to  strengthen  the  Liberator  for 
the  coming  emergency,  and  raised  $5CO  for  its 
support.  7 


74 


This  appropriation  operated  like  an  Ithuriel 
spear  upon  the  craft  of  the  confederated  opposers. 
It  had  been  their  policy  to  represent  their  propos 
ed  periodical  as  likely  to  aid  the  circulation  of  the 
Liberator.  Now,  Mr.  Torrey  pronounced  this 
appropriation  a  highly  improper  one.  He  put  his 
condemnation  of  the  measure  into  the  shape  of  a 
general  principle.  "An  Jlnti-  Slav  cry  Society, 
aiding  the  circulation  of  the  Boston  Recorder,  the 
Liberator,  or  any  other  such  irrelevant  periodical ! 
it  would  meet  strong  opposition  at  Lynn."  He 
mistook,  from  inability  to  appreciate,  the  abolition 
ists  of  that  neighborhood.  That  indefinable  sen 
sation  began  to  stir  through  the  anti-slavery  ranks 
which  betokens  a  conflict.  The  "  oppugnancy" 
rose  in  every  true  heart  near  the  scene  of  action; 
but  so  craftily  had  the  enemy  wrought,  that  the 
danger  was,  lest  he  should  accomplish  his  ends  be 
fore  he  could  be  unmasked  to  the  general  gaze. 
Men  who  saw  not  the  causes,  observed  the  whirl 
and  eddy  of  the  current  of  events.  The  feeling 
was  like  that  described  by  Max.  Piccolomini,  be 
fore  the  revolt  of  Friedland. 

"  Something, 

I  can't  but  know,  is  going  forward  round  me. 
1  see  it  gathering — crowding — driving  on, 
In  wild  uncustomary  movements.      Well  — 
In  due  time,  it  will  doubtless  reach  even  me. 


75 


There  was  a  breathless  and  impatient  looking 
for. 

Indications  of  the  exact  course  that  the  miners 
and  sappers  were  pursuing,  now  came  to  light. 
Mr.  St.  Clair,  still  an  .agent  of  the  Massachu 
setts  Board,  left  in  their  office  a  rough  draught 
of  resolutions  to  effect  a  fatal  change  in  the  ba 
sis  of  the  Massachusetts  Society,  making  it 
exclusive  and  sectarian,  by  a  rejection  of  all  as 
consistent  members,  who  did  not  sustain  the 
government  of  the  country  at  the  polls.  The 
establishment  of  a  new  paper  was  also  enjoined, 
in  terms  the  necessary  effect  of  which  was  de 
structive  of  the  Liberator.  These  resolutions 
were  endorsed  by  Mr.  Torrey,  thus  : 

"  Good.  I  think,  now,  such  resolutions  should 
have  been  presented  at  the  Essex  County  Meet 
ing  at  Amesbury  Mills.  CHARLES  T.  TORREY." 

The  plan  was,  to  carry  the  State  by  counties 
and  by  towns,  and  then  to  crowd  up  to  the 
grand  annual  meeting  in  irresistible  strength,  to 
give  the  finishing  blow. 

The  next  meeting  of  consequence  was  that  of 
the  Worcester  County  Society,  (north  divis 
ion,)  at  Fitchburg.  There,  Mr.  St.  Clair  in 
troduced  the  new  ideas,  by  means  of  the  pro- 


76 


jected  resolutions.  At  the  close  of  the  meet 
ing,  after  most  of  the  friends  had  retired,  and  a- 
gainst  the  wishes  of  some  who  remained,  he  per 
sisted  in  presenting  them.  They  were  adopted, 
after  speeches  from  himself  and  the  Rev.  Mr.Col- 
ver,  by  the  raising  of  five  or  six  hands  ;  prob 
ably  without  a  perception  of  their  design  and 
tendency  on  the  part  of  that  few. 

FITCHBURG      RESOLUTIONS. 

Whereas,  slavery  is  the  creature  of  legislation, 
upheld  and  supported  by  law,  and  is  to  be  abol 
ished  by  law,  and  by  law  only  ;  and 

Whereas,  in  order  to  secure  its  legal  overthrow, 
the  legislative  bodies  having  power  over  the  same 
must  be  composed  of  good  men  and  true,  who 
will  go  for  its  immediate  abolition  ;  and 

Whereas,  it  is  impossible  to  obtain  such  a  legis 
lative  body,  unless  abolitionists  carry  their  princi 
ples  to  the  ballot-box,  and  vote  only  for  men  of 
this  character  ;  and 

Whereas,  it  is  impossible  to  urge  this  duty  on 
the  consideration  of  abolitionists  without  an  able 
paper,  which  will  take  this  ground  and  maintain  it 
consistently,  firmly  and  constantly  :  Therefore, 

Resolved,  1st,  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this 
Society,  every  abolitionist  is  in  duty  bound,  not 
to  content  himself  with  merely  refusing  to  vote 
for  any  man  who  is  opposed  to  the  emancipation 
of  the  slave,  BUT  TO  GO  TO  THE  POLLS,  AND 


THROW  HIS  VOTE  FOR  SOME  MAN   KNOWN  TO  FAVOR 
IT. 

2d.  That  it  is  his  imperious  duty  to  make  inali 
enable  human  rights  the  first  and  paramount  princi 
ples  in  political  action  ;  and,  when  any  two  can 
didates  for  Congress  or  the  State  Legislature  are 
put  in  nomination,  one  for  and  the  other  against 
the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery,  he  is  in  duty 
bound  to  vote  for  the  abolitionist,  independent  of 
all  other  political  considerations  ; — or,  if  neither 
candidate  be  of  this  description,  then  he  is  equal 
ly  bound  to  go  to  the  polls,  and  vote  for  some 
true  man  in  oppostion  to  them  both,  and  to  do  all 
he  can,  lawfully,  to  defeat  their  election. 

3d.  That  a  weekly  and  ably-conducted  anti- 
slavery  paper,  which  shall  take  right,  high,  and 
consistent  ground  on  this  subject,  and  constantly 
urge  abolitionists,  as  in  duty  bound,  to  use  their 
political,  as  well  as  their  moral  and  religious  pow 
er  and  rights  for  the  immediate  overthrow  of 
slavery,  is  now  greatly  needed  in  Massachusetts, 
as  has  been  but  too  plainly  proved  at  the  expense 
of  the  cause,  by  difficulties  which  have  been  expe 
rienced  in  the  Fourth  Congressional  District,  in 
reaching  the  anti-slavery  electors  on  the  subject 
of  their  political  duties. 

4th.  That  we  therefore  earnestly  recommend 
to  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Massachusetts 
Anti-Slavery  Society,  or  to  the  Society  itself  at  its 
next  annual  meeting,  to  establish  a  paper  of  this 
description — of  about  the  size  and  price  of  the 

7* 


78 


Herald  of  Freedom — to  be  issued  every  week  to 
subscribers — to  be  exclusively  confined  to  slavery 
and  abolition — to  urge  constantly,  political  as  well 
as  moral  and  religious  action — to  be  edited  by 
some  able,  efficient  man,  who  can  conscientiously 
and  heartily  advocate  all  these  points — and  to  be 
under  the  entire  control  of  the  Executive  Com 
mittee  of  the  State  Society. 

5th.  That  we  desire  every  County  and  Town 
Society,  which  may  hold  a  meeting  previous  to 
the  annual  meeting  of  the  State  Society,  to  take 
up  and  pass  an  opinion  on  this  subject. 

These  resolutions  were  lithographed  and  sent 
to  the  officers  of  Societies,  by  Mr.  Phelps,  Mr. 
St.  Glair,  and  Mr.  Torrey,  accompanied  by  earnest 
injunctions  to  county  meetings  to  send  up  great  del 
egations  to  the  annual  meeting,  instructed  to  carry 
them  through,  with  assurances  to  such  as  they 
could  not  fully  trust,  that  "  they  were  opposed 
to  nothing  but  dough-face-ism. " 

In  the  same  number  of  the  Liberator  in  which 
the  resolutions  appeared,  an  unanticipated  ob 
stacle  to  their  design  was  also  announced. 
The  President  of  the  Massachusetts  Society, 
though  neither  peace  man  nor  perfectionist,  but 
one  who,  individually,  considered  it  his  duty  to  use 
his  elective  franchise,  took  charge  of  the  financial 
concerns  of  the  Liberator,  in  conjunction  with 


79 


two  of  his  colleagues  of  the  Board  ;  and  in  their 
individual  capacity  they  gave  notice  to  the  public 
of  their  reasons  for  so  doing.  That  paper  was,  in 
their  view  identified  with  the  anti-slavery  cause 
in  a  manner  that  could  be  affirmed  of  no  other 
print,  not  only  from  the  circumstance  of  its 
having  been  the  first,  but  more  strongly,  because 
of  the  faithfulness,  constancy,  and  disregard  of 
peril  and  persecution  ;  the  excellence  of  character 
editorial  talent,  and  intuitive  sagacity,  of  its  con 
ductor.  And  because  they  thought  those  quali 
ties  never  more  needed  than  at  that  moment, 
they  called  upon  all  who  loved  the  cause  to 
stand  by  the  Liberator.  It  was  signed  by  Francis 
Jackson,  William  Basset,  and  Edmund  Quincy. 

Here  was  an  unexpected  blow  :  — A  contra 
diction  of  calumnies,  a  financial  security,  a  poli 
tician's  attestation  to  the  value  of  the  Liberator, 
combined  in  one  view,  before  the  eyes  of  the  an 
ti-slavery  community.  It  was  done,  too,  without 
any  claim  on  the  part  of  the  doers,  that  the  Liber 
ator  should  sink  from  being  the  organ  of  all  in  the 
cause  who  chose  to  use  it,  into  the  mere  instru 
ment  of  a  few.  This  was  prophetic  of  stout  resis 
tance  to  the  narrow,  exclusive,  and  enslaving  spirit 
which  had  so  long  wrought  in  secret,  to  undermine 
the  broad  foundations  of  the  anti-slavery  cause. 


80 


The  shrewd  proverb  of  the  lookers-on  during 
revolutions,  says  that 

•;;.;. J,     ..vfroTi  .;-:",.  ••  x.^^  -ji v  ,.  •    "Uj 

"  Treason  never  prospers  :  what's  the  reason  1 
When  it  prospers,  men  don't  call  it  treason." 

Happily  for  the  slave,  at  this  critical  instant,  there 
were  not  wanting  men  to  call  out  "Treason!" 
against  this  whole  procedure,  irrespective  of  its 
probable  success,  in  that  soul-cleaving  and  victo 
rious  voice  which  carries  with  it  instant  convic 
tion. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  the  course  of  men 
in  peculiar  and  trying  times,  and  to  notice  the 
strong  contrasts  of  character  and  conduct  that 
such  limes  present. 

Mr.  Phelps,  Mr.  Stanton,  Mr.  Torrey,  and  Mr. 
St.  Clair  were  hurrying  from  meeting  to  meeting 
with  the  Fitchburg  resolutions,  or  driving  the 
quill  over  quires  of  paper,  urging  the  instant  con 
vocation  of  the  societies  for  the  introduction  of 
the  new  paper,  saying  that  it  was  not  intended  to 
be  in  opposition  to  the  old,  but  only  introduced 
because  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  abolitionists  in  the 
State  would  not  take  the  Liberator,  —  that  it 
would  probably  be  adopted  with  great  unanimity 


81 


as  the  organ  oT  the  State  Society,  at  the  Annual 
Meeting  —  and  dwelling  strongly  on  the  impor 
tance  of  sending  up  large  delegations,  instructed 
to  vote  in  its  favor. 

Mr.  Garrison  stood  calmly  watching  the  aspect 
of  the  times,  and  when  the  signs  were  full,  he 
raised  the  note  of  warning  — 

"WATCHMAN,  WHAT  OF  THE  NIGHT?" 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  State  Anti-Slavery 
Society  will  be  held  in  this  city  on  the  23d  inst. 
There  are  many  indications  which  lead  us  to  re 
gard  it  as  pregnant  with  momentous  consequences 
to  the  abolition  cause  in  this  section  of  the  coun 
try.  Perhaps  at  no  period  has  there  been  so 
much  cause  for  just  alarm  as  at  the  present. 
Strong  foes  are  without,  Insidious  plotters  are 
within  the  camp.  A  conflict  is  at  hand,  —  if  the 
signs  of  the  times  do  not  deceive  us,  — which  is 
to  be  more  hotly  contested,  and  which  will  re 
quire  more  firmness  of  nerve  and  greater  single 
ness  of  purpose,  (combined  with  sleepless  vigi 
lance  and  unswerving  integrity.)  than  any  through 
which  we  have  passed  to  victory.  Once  more, 
therefore,  we  would  speak  trumpet-tongued  — 
sound  an  alarm-bell  —  light  up  a  beacon-fire  — 
give  out  a  new  watch-word  —  so  that  there  may 
be  a  general  rallying  of  our  early,  intrepid,  storm 
proof,  scarred  and  veteran  coadjutors,  at  the  com 
ing  anniversary,  —  all  panoplied  as  of  yore,  and 


prepared  to  give  battle  to  internal  contrivers  of 
mischief,  as  readily  as  to  external  and  avowed 
enemies. 

The  danger  which  now  threatens  all  that  is 
pure  and  vital  in  our  cause,  is  two-fold  and  com 
plex.  From  the  commencement  of  our  sacred 
struggle,  we  have  been  resisted  by  every  religious 
sect,  and  made  by  turns  the  loot-ball  of  every 
political  party.  As  among  all  sects  and  all  par 
ties,  there  are  some  who  will  never  bow  the  knee 
to  Baal,  but  are  resolved  to  follow  RICHT  and 
TRUTH  through  flood  and  fire,  come  what  may  — 
these,  by  the  irresistible  affinity  of  principle,  have 
come  into  our  ranks,  repudiating  every  sectarian 
distinction,  every  party  badge,  and  refusing  to 
march  under  any  other  banner  than  that  of  HU 
MANITY.  Bravely  have  they  contended,  cheer 
fully  have  they  suffered,  in  the  cause  of  their 
enslaved  countrymen  ;  and  nobly  have  they  with 
stood  a  thousand  wily  artifices  to  seduce  them 
from  their  post.  And  they  will  persevere  unto 
the  end. 

f  Tempt  them  with  bribe?,  'twill  be  in  vain; 
Try  them  with  fire,  you'll  find  them  true." 

But  all  external  opposition,  in  whatever  form 
it  may  appear,  is  harmless,  compared  to  internal 
sedition.  —  And  with  pain  we  avow  it,  there  is  a 
deep  scheme  laid  by  individuals,  at  present  some 
what  conspicuous,  as  zealous  and  active  abolition 
ists,  to  put  the  control  of  the  anti-slavery  move- 


83 


ments  in  this  Commonwealth  into  other  hands. 
This  scheme,  of  course,  is  of  clerical  origin,  and 
the  prominent  ringleaders  fill  the  clerical  office. 
One  of  the  most  restless  was  a  participant  in  the 
famous  "  Clerical  Appeal"  conspiracy,  —  though 
not  one  of  the  immortal  FIVE.  The  design  is,  by 
previous  management  and  drilling,  to  effect  such 
a  change  in  the  present  faithful  and  liberal-minded 
Board  of  Managers  of  the  State  Society,  at  the 
annual  meeting,  as  will  throw  the  balance  of  pow 
er  into  the  hands  of  a  far  different  body  of  men, 
for  the  accomplishment  of  ulterior  measures 
which  are  now  in  embryo.  —  The  next  object  is, 
to  effect  the  establishment  of  a  new  weekly  anti- 
slavery  journal,  to  be  the  organ  of  the  State  Soci 
ety,  for  the  purpose,  if  not  avowedly,  yet  design 
edly  to  subvert  the  Liberator,  and  thus  relieve 
the  abolition  cause  in  this  State  of  the  odium  of 

counteracting  such  a   paper.       Then make 

way  for  the  clergy  !  For,  by  "  hanging  Garrison," 
and  repudiating  the  Liberator,  they  will  surely 
condescend  to  take  the  reins  of  anti-slavery  man 
agement  into  their  own  hands  ! 

The  plot,  thus  far,  has  been  warily  managed, 
— so  as,  if  possible,  to  u  deceive  the  very  elect." 
Many,  we  know,  are  already  ensnared,  and  some, 
at  least,  who  neither  intend  nor  suspect  mischief. 
The  guise  in  which  it  is  presented,  is  one  of 
deep  ssolicitude  for  the  success  of  our  cause.  No 
attempt  is  made  to  lower  down  the  standard  —  O 
no!  —  but  simply  to  change  the  men  to  whom 


84 


has  been  so  long  entrusted  the  management  of 
the  enterprize,  and  put  in  their  place  younger 
men,  better  men,  who  will  accomplish  wonders, 
and  perform  their  duties  more  faith  fully  —  that's 
all  !  While,  privately,  by  conversation,  letters, 
circulars,  &c.  &c.  every  effort  is  making  to  dis 
parage  the  Liberator,  (the  paper  is  too  tame  for 
these  rampant  plotters!)  and  to  calumniate  its 
editor,  no  hostility  to  either  is  to  be  openly  avow 
ed  !  Far  from  it ;  for  honesty  in  this  case  might 
not,  peradventure,  prove  to  be  the  best  policy. 
—  The  shape  in  which  this  new  project  is  to  be 
urged,  is  developed  in  the  resolutions  which  were 
adopted  at  the  recent  meeting  of  the  Worcester 
County  North  Division  A.  S.  Society,  at  Fitch- 
burgh.  Those  resolutions  were  concocted  in 
Essex  County,  by  the  joint  labors  of  two  clergy 
men,  and  passed  as  above  stated. —  only  four  or 
five  hands,  we  learn,  being  raised  in  their  favor. 
The  plan  is,  it  seerns,  to  get  as  many  anti-slavery 
societies  committed  in  favor  of  these  resolutions, 
before  the  annual  meeting,  as  possible.  The 
political  necessity  which  is  urged  for  another 
paper  is  ridiculous  ;  and  we  know  it  is  nothing 
but  a  hollow  pretence. 

The  trusty  friends  of  our  good  cause,  and  all 
who  desire  to  baffle  the  machinations  of  a  clerical 
combination,  will  need  no  other  notice  than  this, 
to  induce  them  to  rally  at  the  annual  meeting, 
and  watch  with  jealousy  and  meet  with  firmness 
every  attempt,  however  plausibly  made,  to  effect 


85 


any  material  change  in  the  management  of  the 
concerns  of  the  State  Society.  The  spirit  that 
would  discard  such  men  as  Francis  Jackson, 
Ellis  Gray  Loring,  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  Edmund 
Quinoy,  and  Wendell  Phillips,  is  treacherous  to 
humanity. 

As  a  specimen  of  the  billing  and  cooing  which 
is  going  on  between  gentlemen  of  the  sacerdotal 
robe,  in  order  to  bring  about  a  radical  alteration 
in  anti-slavery  control,  read  the  following  extract 
from  a  recent  letter  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Osgood,  of 
Springfield,  to  Prof.  Emerson,  of  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  Andover  : 

"  I  do  not  say  these  things  to  palliate  the  con 
duct  of  these  writers  in  the  anti-slavery  papers 
who  have  poured  such  torrents  of  abuse  upon  the 
non-conformists  among  the  clergy.  I  have  ever 
spoken  freely  about  many  of  these  communica 
tions,  both  to  friends  and  opposers.  I  think  there 
has  been  a  bad  spirit  manifested  on  the  side  of  the 
abolitionists  toward  the  opposing  clergy  ;  or,  if  you 
please,  those  who  stand  aloof  and  do  nothing.  I 
do  most  sincerely  hope  that  my  brethren  who  like 
you  (!)  hate  slavery,  but  still  remain  neuter,  (!) 
will  calmly  review  the  whole  ground,  and  sacri 
fice  all  minor  considerations,  and  work  with  us  in 
this  cause.  I  see  no  insuperable  objections.  I 
desire  this  the  more  ardently,  because  the  char 
acter  of  the  ministry  suffers,  in  the  estimation  of 
many  good  men,  by  the  course  they  pursue,  while 
the  enemies  of  all  righteousness  take  occasion  to 
8 


86 


thrust  a  sword  into  the  vitals  of  religion  itself, 
through  the  clergy.  Mr.  Garrison,  sir,  is  not  the 
principal  offender  in  this  matter;  [very  gentle  !] 
—  he  is  made  answerable,  as  a  public  editor,  for 
the  conduct  of  others.  But  Orj"  our  brethren 
[such  men  as  Moses  Stuart  and  Ralph  Emerson  !] 
can  easily  take  the  sword  out  of  the  hand  of  these 
VIOLENT  AND  PREJUDICED  MEN.ei£0 
OJ^And  I  trust  they  will  soon  do  it  EFFECTUALLY, 
by  some  course  of  ACTION.  The  cause  would  be 
greatly  promoted  by  their  co-operation'  // 


Wendell  Phillips,  the  same  who  took  the  brunt 
of  the  battle  at  Faneuil  Hall,  upon  the  day  when 
men  met  there  to  wash  their  hands  of  Lovejoy's 
murder,  was  among  the  foremost  to  detect  the 
subtler  form  of  danger.  His  letter  to  the  finan 
cial  committee  of  the  Liberator,  which  appeared 
in  the  next  column  to  the  call  of  the  watchman, 
stripped  the  opposition  of  their  disguises,  with  a 
firm  and  dexterous  hand.  It  exhibits,  in  a  con 
densed  form,  the  mind  of  one  who  had  knowl 
edge  of  the  cause  throughout  the  State,  as  a  lec 
turer  and  a  manager  of  the  Society,  and  through 
out  the  land,  as  an  acute  and  philosophical  ob 
server.  In  politics,  a  voter,  —  in  theology,  a 
Calvinist,  —  in  church  government,  a  congrega- 
tionalist,  —  looking  on  these  things  from  the 


87 


same  point  of  view  with  those  who  were  laboring 
for  the  destruction  of  Freedom,  toleration  and 
fraternal  confidence  in  the  cause,  he  came  to  dia 
metrically  opposite  conclusions. — 

"  The  heart's  aye   the  part  aye, 
That  makes  us  right  or  wrong." 

• 

LETTER    OF    WENDELL    PHILLIPS. 

Messrs.  Jackson,  Qwz'/icy,  and  Bassett  : 

DEAR  SIRS — I  wish  to  express  to  you  the 
satisfaction  which  the  new  arrangements  for  the 
Liberator  have  given  me.  They  will  gain  for  it 
a  wider  circulation  and  more  permanent  useful 
ness.  I  feel  not  merely  for  the  paper  itself — 
though  it  would  give  me  pain,  T  confess,  to  see 
the  first  banner  which  was  unfurled  in  our  cause, 
which  has  braved  for  so  many  years  the  battle  and 
the  breeze,  having  lived  down  its  enemies,  sink  at 
last  from  the  coldness  of  its  friends.  But,  apart 
from  this.  I  regard  the  success  of  the  Liberator 
as  identical  with  that  of  the  abolition  cause  itself. 
Though  so  bitterly  opposed,  it  does  more  to  dis 
seminate,  develope  and  confirm  our  principles, 
than  any  other  publication  whatever.  The  spirit 
which  produced,  still  animates  it,  and  with  mag 
netic  influence  draws  from  all  parts  of  society 
every  thing  like  around  it.  Other  measures  may 
suit  different  circumstances,  and  other  parts  of 
the  country  ;  but  here,  and  now,  the  spirit  of  the 
Liberator  is  the  touchstone  of  true  hearts.  Almost 


88 


all  the  opposition  it  has  met  with,  various  as  it 
seems,  springs  from  one  cause.  At  starting,  some 
who  agreed  with  its  principles  denounced  it 
as  "  foul-mouthed  and  abusive  ;"  next,  the  occa 
sional  expression  of  some  individual  opinions  of 
its  editor,  gained  it  the  name  of  "  irreligious  and 
Jacobin  ;" — ana1  now  some  point  to  its  peace 
views  as  infidel  in  their  tendency,  and  "a  stum 
bling-block  in  our  way.  Under  all  these  disguises 
have  men  concealed  their  motives,  sometimes 
even  from  themselves. 

The  real  cause  of  this  opposition,  in  my  opinion, 
is  the  fundamental  principle  upon  which  the  Libe 
rator  has  been  conducted  : — that  rights  are  more 
valuable  than  forms  ;  that  truth  is  a  better  guide 
than  prescription  ;  that  no  matter  how  much  truth 
a  sect  embodies,  no  matter  how  useful  a  profes 
sion  may  be,  no  matter  how  much  benefit  any 
form  of  government  may  confer — still  they  are  all 
but  dust  in  the  balance  when  weighed  against  the 
protection  of  human  rights,  the  discussion  and 
publication  of  great  truths  ;  that  all  forms  of 
human  device  are  worse  than  useless,  when  they 
stand  in  Truth's  way.  These  are  its  principles; 
— frank,  fearless  single-heartedness,  the  utmost 
freedom  of  thought  and  speech,  its  characteristics. 
If  we  fail  to  impress  these  on  each  abolition 
heart,  our  efforts  are  paralyzed,  and  our  cause  is 
lost.  Pride  of  settled  opinion,  love  of  lifeless 
form?:,  undue  attachments  to  sect,  are  its  foes. 

With  the  fullest  charity   for  all  conscientious 


89 


scruples,  and  dissenting,  as  1  do,  from  the  peace- 
views  of  the  Liberator,  I  cannot  see  how  their 
discussion,  conducted  in  a  Christian  spirit,  and 
with  sincere  love  of  truth,  can  offend  the  con 
science  of  any  man.  Limited  to  a  brief  space, 
as  it  is,  it  can  have  no  effect  on  the  general  char 
acter  of  the  paper.  I  mean  to  give  all  my 
influence,  (and,  in  this  crisis,  when  the  paper  so 
much  needs  its  friends,  I  wish  that  influence  were 
greater,)  to  gain  it  the  confidence,  and  pour  its 
spirit  into  the  mind  of  every  one  I  can  reach.  1 
shall  esteem  it  a  privilege  to  second  your  efforts. 
The  danger  I  most  dread  is,  to  have  our  cause  fall 
under  the  control  of  any  party,  sect,  or  profession. 
That  way  ruin  lies.  The  chiefest  bulwark  against 
it,  I  know  of,  is  the  Liberator.  Success  to  it. 
May  it  have  the  cordial  support  of  every  abolition 
heart.  Yours,  truly, 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 
Boston,  Jan.  7th,  1839. 

Troubles,  however  different  in  their  nature,  al 
ways  seem  to  have  fellowship  with  each  other. 
At  this  juncture,  while  the  Anti-Slavery  communi 
ty  in  Massachusetts  were  laboring  under  the 
pain  and  astonishment  of  the  recent  development, 
came  a  Sub-Committee,  consisting  of  Mr.  Leavitt 
and  Mr.  Stanton,  from  New  York,  to  say  that,  as 
the  stated  payments  due  to  the  National  Treasury 
6* 


were    unpaid,    the    contract    became     null    and 
void.* 

The  Massachusetts  Board  could  not,  as  law 
yers,  or  as  men  of  business,  admit  this  to  be 
the  case ;  but,  anxious  to  discharge  the  obliga 
tion,  they  came  to  the  following  resolution,  in  the 
presence  of  the  New  York  Committee. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Executive  Committee  be 
invited  .to  send  their  agents  into  the  State,  and 
take  any  other  measures  they  may  deem  best, 
to  collect  the  amount  due  on  the  pledge  made  by 
this  society,  and  to  become  due  on  the  first  of 
February,  and  to  remit  the  whole  to  the  treasury 
of  the  Massachusetts  Society,  under  the  promise 
that  the  same  shall  be  immediately  and  wholly 
remitted  to  New  York  ;  and  that  in  the  collec 
tion  of  the  same,  they  be  authorised  to  receive 
the  amount  of  pledges  hitherto  made  to  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Society.'7 

They  hoped,  by  this,  to  open  a  way  for  the  in 
stant  redemption  of  the  pledge,  through  the 
means  of  the  friendly  co-operation  of  the  New 
York  Committee,  and  trusted  that  the  rash,  un- 


*For  the  terms  of  this  contract  and  the  occasion  of  its  necessity, 
see  pages  10  and  47. 


91 


business-like   and  unbrotherly  nullification  of  so 
necessary  an  arrangement,  would  be  avoided. 

To  the  surprise  of  the  Massachusetts  men,  who 
thtn  could  perceive  no  sufficient  motive  for  such 
a  course,  the  New  York  Committee  declined  to 
accept  these  terms.  Were  they  suffering  for  the 
money  ?  Why  then  did  they  not  take  the  readi 
est  and  the  best  way  to  get  it  ? —  through  the 
Massachusetts  Society, —  not  over  it  ?  Did  they 
love  peace  and  unity  ?  Why  then  for  ofte  mo 
ment  hesitate  ?  They  were  invited  to  send  in 
their  agents,  and  take  any  other  means  they 
might  deem  best,  under  the  arrangement  of  the 
preceding  June.  What  more  ought  brethren 
and  honest  men  to  desire?  What  more  could  be 
accomplished  by  their  plan,  of  going  on  as  if  the 
Massachusetts  Society  were  not  in  existence  ? 
One  thing  more  it  could  not  fail  to  accomplish, — 
the  destruction  of  the  Massachusetts  Society. 
Was  it  possible  that  the  New  York  brethren  had 
aimed  at  that  ?  Were  it  so,  they  could  not  better 
have  hit  the  mark  than  by  corning  at  that  painful 
moment,  to  envenom  a  financial  embarrassment 
which,  singly,  could  have  been  so  easily  met,  by 
mingling  it  with  the  poisoned  sources  of  difficulty 
that  had  just  been  laid  bare.  They  came  for 


92 


money,  at  a  moment  when  the  state  treasury 
was  found  empty  —  the  state  agents  proved 
treacherous,  the  state  energies  bent  upon  work 
ing  out  a  political  demonstration  in  the  eyes  of 
the  whole  country.  And  because,  under  all  these 
difficulties,  a  part  of  the  money  had  not  been  paid 
when  it  became  due,  they  refused  to  collect  it, 
with  permission,  for  the  mere  pleasure,  it  seemed, 
of  collecting  it  without  permission.  If  they  were 
unwilling  to  acknowledge,  even  in  form,  the  exist 
ence  of  the  Massachusetts  Society,  what  was  the 
legitimate  inference  ?  Did  the  Committee  really 
agree  with  the  slaveholder,  and  his  soul-guard 
from  the  truth,  —  the  associations  of  the  ministry,, 
that  the  Massachusetts  Society  ought  to  be  de 
stroyed  ? 

Massachusetts  men  deemed  it  a  virtue  to  repel 
these  thoughts,  which  the  conduct  of  the  New 
York  Committee  could  not  fail  to  suggest.  They 
shrunk  from  the  pain  of  beholding  and  weighing 
the  evidence  of  a  want  of  fraternal  confidence,  and 
devotion  to  the  cause.  They  were  doomed  for 
this  weakness,  to  feel  soon,  in  their  own  persons, 
how  much  better  it  is  to  judge  our  fellows  by  their 
deeds,  than  by  our  own  hopes  or  fears. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE    DENOEUMENT. 


What  we  would  think,  is  not  the  qnestion  here. 

The  affair  speaks  lor  itself,  and  clearest  proofs. — SCHILLER. 


The  annual  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Soci 
ety  was  the  time  proposed  by  the  confederated 
agents  and  secretaries  of  the  National  and  Massa 
chusetts  Societies,  for  the  full  development  of 
their  plans.  Like  children  playing  at  draughts, 
they  had  calculated  their  own  game,  but  not  the 
counteracting  moves  of  their  antagonists.  Mr. 
Garrison's  unexpected  trumpet-blast,  threw  them 
into  confusion.  They  were  ignorant  of  the  ex 
tent  of  his  knowledge,  and,  in  their  consternation, 
did  the  exact  thing,  that  innocence  would  by  its 
nature  have  necessarily  avoided  —  denied  the  ex 
istence  of  any  plot. 

Mr.  Garrison  had  spoken  of  two  clergymen  in 
Essex  County.  Mr.  Torrey  and  Mr.  St.  Clair, 
like  Scrub  in  the  comedy,  were  "  sure  he  was  talk- 


94 


ing  of  them,"  and  went  into  a  labored  denial  and 
explanation  ;  all  of  which,  when  examined  and 
condensed,  demonstrated  that  a  great  amount  of 
lime  and  labor,  and  by  means  of  the  agents  and 
the  funds  of  the  Massachusetts  and  National  Soci 
eties,  had  been  privately  expended  in  sowing  the 
seed  of  the  new  paper. 

Mr.  Phelps,  to  whom  Mr.  Garrison  had  not  al 
luded,  identified  himself  with  the  plot,  in  a  series 
of  letters,  whose  remarkable  bitterness  was  char 
itably  imputed  by  some  to  the  peevishness  of  re 
cent  illness.  Others  there  were,  who  received 
these  letters  as  a  proclamation  to  all  concerned, 
that  the  writer  was  no  longer  "  Mr.  Garrison's 
Brother  Phelps;"  and  as  an  evidence  that  the 
threat  of  the  Recorder  had  effected  its  purpose. 

The  Anti-Slavery  Office  became  a  scene  of 
deep  interest,  both  to  the  devoted  friend  of  the 
cause,  and  to  the  close  observer  of  human  nature, 
while  the  tide  of  inquiring  comers  was  on  the 
flood.  The  innocent  regularly  brought  confirma 
tion  that  the  alarm-note  of  Mr.  Garrison  was 
most  fortunately  timed.  They  all  recollected 
some  incomprehensible  circumstance  on  which 
the  recent  developments  had  shed  a  flood  of  light. 
Some  recalled  a  conversation  with"  your  agent, " 


95 


some,  a  remark  of  "  our  secretary,"  hinting  at  a 
change  in  the  Board,  or  a  way  by  which  clerical  op 
ponents  might  be  gained  over  to  the  cause  ;  "  for 
we  must  have  all  these  men."  Abundance  of  sayings 
came  to  mind,  by  which,  when  first  uttered,  they 
had  been  exceedingly  puzzled,  and  had  finally  laid 
aside  as  jests  or  incomprehensible: — having  the 
master-key,  they  could  now  unlock  them  all. 
Notes  and  letters  by  the  dozen  were  forth-coming, 
from  Mr.  Torrey  and  others,  marked  "  confiden 
tial."  His  correspondents  now  began  to  feel  that 
silence  was  crime."  An  eagerness  to  give  and 
receive  information,  marked  the  innocent.  Not 
so  the  guilty.  They  vehemently  denied  the  ex 
istence  of  any  plot, — said  that  Mr.  Garrison  was 
unfit  to  be  entrusted  with  any  important  post  in 
the  cause,  that  Non-Resistants  were  not  properly 
abolitionists, — that  slavery  was  the  creature  of 
law — that  votes  made  it,  and  votes  only  could  un 
make  it — that  though  the  Liberator  did  in  its  col 
umns  advocate  political  action,  it  was  inconsistent 
in  so  doing,  and  that  they  thought  a  new  paper 
absolutely  necessary. 

In  this  position,  the  day  of  the  annual  meeting 
found  the  conflicting  principles  and  men.  Bigot 
ry  and  sectarism  were  pitted  against  religious 


96 


liberty  and  Christian  love, — openness  and  candor 
against  craft  and  concealment, — treachery  against 
fidelity, — falsehood  against  truth,  and,  (for  things 
that  are  equal  to  the  same  things  are  equal  to  one 
another,)  freedom  against  bondage. 

It  was  the  largest  anti-slavery  gathering  ever 
witnessed  in  Massachusetts^  and  a  noble  sight  it 
was  to  look  upon.  It  preserved  its  original  hetero 
geneous  character,  being  composed  of  old  and 
young,  men  and  women  ;  of  every  sect,  party,  con 
dition  and  color,  all  filled  with  the  most  absorb 
ing  interest.  Well  might  every  eye  be  rivetted, 
and  every  heart  wrapped  in  earnest  attention.  It 
was  a  turning  point  in  the  cause.  A  strong  and 
mighty  wind  had  come  to  winnow  the  wheat  from 
the  chaff;  the  crooked  was  to  be  made  straight — 
the  hidden  was  to  be  revealed  : —  expectation 
was  wrought  up  to  the  top  of  its  bent.  The 
report  of  the  Board  of  Managers,  written  by  Mr. 
Garrison,  was  first  read.  Men  looked  wonder- 
ingly  at  one  another.  "  Is  this  the  report  that 
we  received  such  earnest  entreaties  to  come 
and  vote  dowTn  B  we  find  no  fault  in  it.  Are 
these  the  opinions  of  our  board  of  officers,  which 
it  is  represented  to  us  as  so  desirable,  for  opinion's 
sake,  to  change?  perhaps  we  might  look  farther, 
and  find  worse.'1 


97 


The  report  was  laid  aside  to  afford  opportunity 
for  the  utterance  of  the  thoughts  which  were  swell 
ing  up,  to  find  vent  in  every  mind.  The  business 
committee,  desirous  of  affording  every  facility 
to  debate,  opened  the  way  by  the  introductions  of 
the  following  resolutions. 

Resolved,  That  the  state  of  the  Anti-Slavery 
cause  in  this  Commonwealth  demands  the  estab 
lishment  of  an  ably-conducted,  cheap,  official  or 
gan,  to  be  under  the  control  of  the  Board  of 
Managers  of  the  State  Society,  issued  weekly  to 
subscribers  ;  to  advocate  political  as  well  as  moral 
and  religious  aciion  ;  to  be  exclusively  confined 
to  the  object  of  the  Anti  Slavery  cause,  and  edit 
ed  by  a  man  or  men,  who  can  conscientiously, 
heartily  and  consistently  advocate  all  the  anti- 
slavery  measures,  political  as  well  as  moral  action  ; 
and  that  the  salary  of  the  editor  or  editors,  to 
gether  with  all  other  necessary  expenses  thereof, 
be  paid  out  of  the  funds  of  the.  Society. 

Resolved,  That  the  Board  of  Managers  are  here 
by  instructed  to  make  arrangements,  if  practicable, 
with  the  proprietors  and  editor  of  the  Liberator, 
to  make  that  paper  the  organ  aforesaid,  and  under 
the  above  restriction  ;  or,  if  that  cannot  be  done, 
that  they  take  measures,  as  soon  as  practicable, 
to  establish  an  organ,  as  recommended  in  the  res 
olutions  passed  by  the  Worcester  County  North 
Divison  Anti-Slavery  Society,  at  its  late  annual 
meeting  in  Fitchburg.  9 


98 


Mr.  St.  Clair  first  spoke.  He  occupied  more 
then  an  hour  in  explaining  to  the  meeting  that 
Mr.  Torrey  had  no  hand  in  the  Fitchburg  resolu 
tions.  Mr.  Torrey  occupied  the  remainder  of  the 
afternoon  in  denying  the  existence  of  any  plot,  dep 
recating  the  fulsome  eulogy  of  abolitionists,  when 
they  spoke  of  the  Liberator; — said  that  its  cir 
culation  was  so  small  that  there  was  absolute  need 
of  another  paper,  for  the  purpose  of  advertising  the 
meetings,  and  that  abolitionists  were  determined 
to  have  a  more  effectual  medium  of  comunica- 
tion  with  the  electors  of  Massachusetts.  He  said. 
f'  Mr.  St.  Clair,  and  myself,  Mr.  Phelps  and  Mr. 
Stanton,  we  four,  are  the  originators  of  this  new 
paper." 

Mr.  Stanton  replied  "  I  warn  the  gentleman 
to  be  careful  of  his  pronouns.  I  defy  any  one  to 
show  a  letter  or  a  fragment  of  a  letter,  to  prove 
that  1  have  been  implicated  in  the  plan  ;  for  I  have 
mentioned  it  in  but  one,  and  that  to  a  friend  in 
another  State."  Mr.  Torrey  said  that  it  was  con 
templated  to  obtain  the  services  of  some  first- 
rate  editor — Elizur  Wright,  or  John  G.  Whittier. 
"Ah!  conies  the  arrow  out  of  that  quiver!"  inly 
responded  a  few  earnest  listeners.  But  the  gen 
eral  feeling  was,  that  it  was  only  a  swelling  word 
used  by  Mr.  Torrey,  for  effect,  so  absurd,  so  ira- 


99 


possible  did  it  seem  that  either  of  those  men  could 
be  made  to  stand  in  Massachusetts  upon  the  cler 
ical  platform  of  hatred  to  Mr.  Garrison.  As 
soon  would  Wendell  Phillips  have  been  suspect 
ed  of  laboring  to  accommodate  pro-slavery  pre 
judice  with  a  less  odious  editor  in  Pennsylvania  ; 
or  Ellis  Gray  Loring,  of  supplying  the  deficien 
cies  of  the  Emancipator,  by  a  hostile  paper  in 
New  York.  Mr.  Torrey  urged  the  forlorn  con 
dition  of  Massachusetts  among  her  sister  states, 
without  an  organ  ;  and  seemed  as  much  impress 
ed  with  the  mortification  of  being  a  member  of 
a  Society  so  sadly  unfurnished,  as  were  the  slav 
ish  Jews,  when  taunted  by  the  surrounding  na 
tions  with  having  no  king. 

Mr.  May  did  not  suffer  in  the  view  of  what  so 
much  affected  Mr.  Torrey.  "  We  have  never 
wanted  means  of  communication  with  the  public," 
he  said;  "when  the  Massachusetts  Society 
wants  an  organ,  she  sounds  a  trumpet. "  Night 
was  closing  round  the  combatants,  and  Mr.  May 
moved  an  indefinite  postponement  of  the  whole 
subject.  Mr.  Phelps  exclaimed  against  thus  "  giv 
ing  the  go-by  to  the  most  important  subject  that 
could  come  before  them."  Mr.  May  withdrew' 
his  motion,  and  the  meeting  closed,  to  meet  again 
in  an  hour. 


100 


Again  the  throng  came  together,  with  a-dded 
numbers  and  spirit.  Mr.  Stanton  took  the  floor, 
and  to  the  utter  astonishment  of  the  meeting,  pro 
claimed  that  the  Liberator  had  lowered  the  stand 
ard  of  abolition,  that  Mr.  Garrison  was  recreant  to 
the  cause,  and  that  therefore  a  new  paper  was  in 
dispensable. 

His  words  opened  the  flood-gates  of  many  mem 
ories.  Instantly  rushed  through  the  minds  of  ab 
olitionists  all  that  had  passed  since  he  first  stood 
among  them,  the  trusted  and  beloved  ;  their  guide 
— their  companion — their  own  femiliar  friend. 
Grief  and  indignation  strove  for  the  mastery  in 
their  hearts  as  he  went  on.  "  A  new  paper  was 
therefore  indispensable.  True,  it  was  said  that 
the  columns  of  the  Liberator  were  filled  with  po 
litical  matter  —  but  how  is  that  political  matter  ob 
tained  ?  It  is  wrought  into  my  frame  in  head 
aches  and  side-aches,  how  that  political  matter  is 
obtained.  If  lamps  could  speak,  they  could  tell 
that  it  is  by  taking  your  agents  from  the  field  to 
furnish  it,  after  the  day's  exhausting  labor. — 
There  ought  to  be  an  editor  to  do  it.  Again  ; 
what  accompanied  this  political  matter,  on  the  oth 
er  side  of  the  paper  ?  Discussions  calculated  to 
nullify  its  effect.  Expressions  of  opposite  opin- 


1-01 


ions.  It  is  not  that  other  subjects  are  introduced 
into  the  Liberator  —  it  is  that  such  other  subjects 
are  introduced  — subjects  so  injurious  to  the  cause. 
Mr.  President,  I  would  not  injure  the  Liberator  or 
Mr.  Garrison.  On  the  subject  of  peace,  perhaps, 
he  is  nearer  right  than  I  am.  But  he  has  lower 
ed  the  standard  of  abolition." 

Mr.  Garrison  and  Mr.  Stanton  had  met  contin 
ually  during  the  season  previous  to  this  attack. 
They  had  met  as  aforetime,  brotherly,  and  Mr. 
Stanton  had  never,  even  by  a  word,  prepared  his 
friend  for  such  a  proceeding.  Conviction  was 
flashed  upon  the  minds  of  the  audience  by  every 
sentence  he  uttered,  that  the  spurious  abolition, 
which,  from  its  being  defended  by  the  ministry, 
had  obtained  the  name  of  clerical  abolition,  had, 
at  last  made  a  conquest  of  a  suitable  layman  to 
carry  forward  its  operations.  The  minds  of  men 
rapidly  reverted  to  the  clerical  effort  of  1837  to 
break  up  the  Massachusetts  Society.  Again  they 
saw  the  effort  renewed ,  to  cast  out  its  most  efficient 
members.  Again  the  same  old  war-cry  sounded 
in  their  ears  — "  Let  them  go  out  from  among  us, 
for  they  are  not  of  us;  and  the  Massachusetts  So 
ciety  must  have  a  new  organ  !"  How  many  a 
grieved  heart,  that  had  trustingly  relied  on  Stan- 
9* 


102 


ton  to  combat  this  fresh  attack  on  the  cause,  on 
thus  hearing  his  proclamation  of  his  own  treach 
ery  to  his  comrades,  was  ready  to  exclaim, 

"  Oh  had  an  angel  .«poke  those  words  to  me, 

I  would  not  have  believed  no  tongue  but  Hubert's." 

All,  then,  was  true  ;  the  boast  of  Mr.  St.  Clair, 
that  if  he  were  treacherous,  then  was  Stanton  and 
every  agent  of  the  Massachusetts  Society  treach 
erous  too  ;  the  declaration  of  Mr.  Torrey  — "  we 
four  !  "  No  need  now,  of  a  conservator  of  pro 
nouns  :  the  mask  was  thrown  off. 

Mr.  Garrison  indignantly  repelled  the  charge 
brought  against  him.  "Am  1  recreant  to  the  cause  ? 
who  believes  it?"  "No!  No!"  burst  forth 
from  the  crowded  aisles  and  galleries.  "  Let  me 
ask  him  a  question;  "  said  Mr.  Stanton.  "  Mr. 
Garrison  !  do  you  or  do  you  not  believe  it  a  sin 
to  go  to  the  polls  ?" 

The  indignant  audience  did  not  cry  "shame  !" 
— they  were  too  deeply  moved  for  utterance. 
They  were  silent  in  breathless  astonishment. 
Was  this  Massachusetts  ?  Was  it  at  a  meeting  of 
her  frce-souled  sons  and  daughters,  from  a  plat 
form  of  toleration  so  broad  that  every  human  be 
ing,  laboring  for  immediate  emancipation,  might 


103 


stand  upon  it,  that  a  man  presented  a  creed-mea 
sure  to  his  brethren,  with  the  threat  to  brand 
every  brow  as  unworthy,  that  overtopped  that 
little  span  ?  Was  it  in  prophetic  fear  of  this  dis 
graceful  scene  that  Massachusetts  abolitionists 
had  so  early  renounced  the  doctrine  of  racks  and 
thumb-screws  —  the  idea  of  reproach  for  opinion  ? 
The  same  indignant  thoughts  thronged  up  for  ut 
terance  in  every  heart.  Quakers,  Calvinists, 
Unitarians  ;  —  Whigs,  Democrats,  and  Non-Re- 
sistants  ;  —  men  of  every  religious  opinion  and 
every  political  theory  —  this  question  insulted 
them  all.  Might  the  believer  in  the  religious  du 
ty  of  voting  claim  authority  to  summon  to  the 
confessional,  all  whom  he  chose  to  mark  for  ex 
clusion  from  the  cause,  and  enter  into  discussion 
and  condemnation  of  their  belief?  Then  might 
every  other  sectary  do  the  same.  The  Bap 
tist  might  banish  the  Friend  —  the  Methodist 
might  proscribe  the  Independent  —  the  white 
man  reject  the  man  of  color  —  the  women  vote 
that  men  were  disqualified  —  or  men  assert  the 
same  absurdity  with  respect  to  women.  If  the 
precious  time  of  a  thousand  friends  of  the  slave, 
met  to  devise  measures  for  making  every  voter  an 
abolitionist,  was  to  be  consumed  in  making  eve- 


104 


ry  abolitionist  a  voter,  men  felt  that  a  change  in 
their  point  of  agreement — a  change  in  the  consti 
tution  and  the  principles  that  made  the  constitu 
tion,  must  be  effected.  The  common  pass-word 
must  no  longer  be  "immediate  emancipation" 
alone,  but  every  sectarian  or  partizan  must  shout 
his  own,  and  draw  his  weapon  upon  every  aboli 
tionist  who  heeded  it  not.  Hatred,  wrong,  and 
bondage,  unmasked  their  hideous  faces  to  love, 
right,  and  freedom,  in  the  question  that  so  roused 
every  soul  in  that  assembly. 

Mr.  Garrison  promptly  answered  it,  so  as  not 
to  deny  his  principles,  nor  yet  to  take  up  the 
guage  of  the  non-resistance  conflict,  which  Mr. 
Stanton  had  thrown  down  : — "  Sin  for  me  !  "  u  I 
ask  you  again,"  persisted  the  infatuated  ques 
tioner,  "do  you  or  do  you  not  believe  it  a  sin' 
to  go  to  the  polls  ?  "  "  Sin  for  me  " — was  the 
same  imperturbable  reply. 

This  treacherous  interrogatory,*  fit  act  of  a  fa- 

*  Tlie  following  resolution,  submitted  to  the  business  Committee  in 
the  hand-writing  of  Mr.  Stanton,  will  explain  the  use  which  was 
to  have  been  made  of  Mr.  Garrison's  answer,  had  the  plot  succeed 
ed.  "  We  shall  thus,"  said  one,  "get  rid  of  the  Non-Kesistantsand 
the  women." 

"  Resolved,  That  every  minister  of  the  gospel  is  bound  to 
preach  aga'mst  slavery ;  that  every  member  of  a  Christian  Church 
is  bound  to  have  no  fellowship  with  this  unfruitful  work  of  dark 
ness;  that  every  ecclesiastical  body  is  bound  to  purify  itself  of 


105 


miliar  of  the  holy  office  to  a  heretic,  but  ineffably 
disgraceful  from  the  Secretary  of  the  National 
Anti-Slavery  Society  to  the  man  on  whose  mo 
tion  the  National  Anti-Slavery  Society  came  into 
existence,  stirred  the  souls  of  the  abolitionists  as 
if  they  had  seen  the  slave-driver  stand  suddenly 
forth  with  his  scourge  and  manacles,  in  visible 
embody  merit  of  the  spiritual  tyranny  they  now  felt. 
A  scene  of  tempestuous  conflict  followed,  as  the 
whole  scope  and  bearing  of  the  work  that  had 
been  going  on  in  the  Commonwealth  under  the 
auspices  of  the  "four,"  became  apparent.  They 
stood  like  him  who  has  tampered  with  the  em 
bankments  that  toil  and  sacrifice  have  built  be 
tween  the  devouring  ocean  and  a  level  and  fer- 

O 

tile  land.     The  indignant  feeling  of  the  audience 

o 

rose  to  an  almost  uncontrollable  pitch  ;  yet  they 
did  restrain  it ;  for  the  winno\ving-tiiue  had  come, 

these  abominations;  and  that  every  person  entitled  to  the  elective 
franchise,  is  bound  not  only  to  refrain  from  voting  for  persons 
as  national  and  state  officers,  who  are  unwilling  to  use  all  their 
authority  for  the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery,  but  is  BOOSD  AT 
EVERT  ELECTION,  TO  REPAIR  TO  THE  PoLCS.  and  caft  his  vote 

for  such  men  as  will  go  to  tlie  ver^e  of  their  official  authority,  for 
its  instant  annihilation;  and  that  every  member  of  en  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  who  refuses,  UN  DEK.  ANY  PRETEXT,  thus 
to  act  morally  or  politically,  or  counsels  others  to  such  a 
course,  is  guilty  of  gross  inconsistency,  and  widely  departs 
from  the  original  and  fundamental  principles  of  the  Anti- 
Slavery  enterprize.'" 


106 


and  they  must  take  careful  note  of  men's  con 
duct  now,  that  they  might  know  who  to  trust 
hereafter.  Painful  and  unexpected  it  was  to  see 
Scott,  Codding  and  Geo.  Allen  swept  away,  as  the 
whirlwind  of  debate  went  on.  The  resolutions 
before  the  meeting  were  respecting  a  rfew  paper. 
But  the  arguments  by  which  they  were  sustained, 
demanded  not  only  a  new  paper,  but  new  princi 
ples — a  new  constitution — a  new  society — new 
officers.  Was  the  true  and  original  test  of  mem 
bership —  not  an  acknowledgment  of  the  justice 
and  necessity  of  immediate  emancipation,  but  a 
belief  in  the  religious  duty  of  voting  at  the  polls  ? 
Then  would  those  arguments  require  the  dissolu 
tion  of  the  Massachusetts  Society,  another  set  of 
men  as  managers  of  a  new  one,  and  the  utter  de 
struction  of  the  Liberator.  Yet  those  who  brought 
forward  those  arguments,  and  who,  if  sincere, 
were  bound  by  them  to  destroy  the  worthless  in- 
'strumentalities  of  which  they  complained,  uni 
formly  declared,  with  the  same  breath,  that  noth 
ing  was  further  from  their  intention  than  to  injure 
the  Liberator,  or  to  cast  any  imputations  against 
the  Board  of  Managers. 

Ellis  Gray  Loring  rose    in   reply.     "  On    the 
question  of  the    need  of  a  new   paper,    I  do   not 


107 


wish  to  speak.  A  need  may  exist  which  I  do 
not  perceive.  Brethren  tell  me  that  there  is 
such  a  need.  I  only  say  that  to  make  such  a 
paper  the  organ  of  the  Society,  and  to  sustain  it  at 
the  expense  of  the  Society,  over  the  head  of  the 
Liberator  would  have  a  tendency  to  injure  the 
Inter.  I  do  not  say  that  gentlemen  mean  it. 
They  tell  us  they  abjure  such  a  thought.  But  it 
is  a  maxim  in  law,  that  the  purpose  of  a  man's 
acts  must  be  presumed  to  correspond  with  their 
manifest  tendency." 

Wendell  Phillips  argued  earnestly  against  the 
first  resolution.  The  second  was  so  manifestly 
a  mockery  that  it  was  scarcely  noticed.  The  spir 
it  of  the  meeting  rose  against  the  whole  intolerant 
contrivance  submitted  to  its  decision.  The  "four," 
when  they  perceived  it,  strove,  by  every  parlia 
mentary  device,  to  delay  judgment.  They  strove 
to  divide  the  resolutions — to  refer  the  matter  to  a 
committee — to  adjourn  the  meeting.  In  vain. 
The  spirit  that  filled  the  JMailboro'  Chapel 
that  night,  refused  to  be  conjured  into  a  com 
mittee-room,  or  to  leave  its  work  unfinished, 
"  Vote  it  down,"  "  vote  it  down/'  was  the  reply 
to  every  proposition  ;  till  Mr.  Loring  moved  an 
indefinite  postponement,  which  was  almost  unan 
imously  carried. 


103 


While  the  fate  of  the  new  paper  was  pending,  a 
doubt  was  raised  by  Mr.  Phelps  and  Mr.  St.  Ciair, 
as  to  the  right  of  women  to  a  voice  in  the  decision. 
The  question  was  hardly  a  debateable  one  in  a 
society  whose  constitution  welcomed  all  persons 
to  an  equal  seat,  and  whose  resolutions  had  pro 
claimed  that,  in  the  cause  of  philanthropy,  all  p^r- 
sons,  whether  men  or  women,  have  the  same  du 
ties  and  the  same  rights.  The  decision  was  there 
fore  referred  to  the  President. 

It  was  not  for  Francis  Jackson,  whose  house  had, 
in  1835,  been  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  women, 
under  threats  of  its  destruction,  after  the  mercan 
tile  world  had  decided  that  they  were  out  of  their 
sphere  in  the  anti-slavery  cause — it  was  not  for 
him  to  shrink  from  a  just  decision  because  the 
religious  world  had  taken  up  the  cry.  Now,  as 
then,  the  women  had  judged  for  themselves. 
Here,  also,  w7as  a  responsibility  which  they  did  not 
choose  to  delegate  ;  and  leaving  ministers  on  one 
side  and  merchants  on  the  other,  they  came,  ac 
cording  to  their  wont,  each  to  serve  the  cause  as 
conscience  and  judgment  should  dictate.  They 
came  with  their  husbands  and  their  brethren, 
from  the  cities  and  from  the  villages.  The  anti- 
slavery  halls  had  been  ever  to  them  as  an  altar 


109 


before  which  to  dedicate  their  young  children  to 
righteousness  and  freedom.  They  came  with  the 
joyful  consciousness  that  whatever  subjects  might 
be  adjudged  foreign,  they,  at  least,  were  at 
home. 

"  The  Chair  rules  that  it    is  in  order  for  wo 
men  to  vote." 

Not  a  voice  was    raised  in   appeal.     The  Mas 
sachusetts     Society    dare'd  not,    for   the    slave's 
sake — it  would  not  for  its  own,   exile   any  of  its 
members  from  its  councils. 

The  report  of  the  Board  of  Managers  was  next 
taken  up,  and  again  the  friends  of  the  new  paper 
rallied  to  the  attack.  Preparatory  to  action  upon 
it,  and  as  a  step  towards  its  condemnation,  Mr- 
St.  Clair  presented  a  resolution,  affirming  it  to  be 
the  imperious  duty  of  every  abolitionist  who  could 
conscientiously  do  so,  to  go  to  the  polls.  The  de 
sign  of  this  resolution  evidently  was,  to  convict 
the  few  non-resistants  present,  of  inconsistency  as 
non-resistants  or  of  guilt  as  abolitionists  ;  and  as 
such  the  meeting  received  it.  At  any  other  time 
the  resolution  would  doubtless  have  passed — the 
great  majority  of  the  Society  being  voters.  But, 
aroused  to  vigilant  watchfulness  of  all  who  were 
10 


110 


attempting  to  drive  them  blindfold  into  absurdity 
and  intolerance,  they  refused  to  make  the  slightest 
change  on  the  resolutions  of  former  years.  They 
had  never  said  more,  during  their  whole  eight 
years'  existence  as  a  Society,  than  that  they  would 
not  vote  for  slavery  ;  and  they  saw  too  plainly  the 
motives  of  this  novel  demand  for  a  resolution  word 
ed  affirmatively.  Neither  had  they  been  so  bit 
terly  reproached  with  the  introduction  of  foreign 
subjects,  without  learning  that  the  word  "  duty" 
or  the  word  "  ought,"  in  relation  to  forms  of  civil 
or  church  government,  on  which  abolitionists  so 
widely  differ,  must  necessarily  open  the  discus 
sion  of  the  whole  vast  subject  of  human  society 
in  all  its  aspects.  It  would  have  been  impossible, 
at  this  moment,  to  have  procured  the  passage  of 
any  resolution  whatever,  on  which  the  opposition 
might  build  enginery  by  which  to  cast  reproach 
upon  any  faithful  abolitionist.  So  plainly  had 
they  exhibited  their  hearts,  even  while  professing 
the  greatest  regard  for  the  Society  and  all  its  mem 
bers,  that  men's  common  sense  forbade  them  to 
afford  any  facilities  for  such  a  purpose. 

Mr.  Garrison  substituted  the  following  resolution, 
which,  being  in  agreement  with  the  uniform  prac- 


Ill 


tice  of  the  Society,  and  in  strict  conformity  to  its 
principles  and  constitution,  was  almost  unanimous 
ly  adopted. 

"  Resolved,  That  those  abolitionists  who  feel 
themselves  called  upon,  by  a  sense  of  duty,  to  go 
to  the  polls,  and  yet  purposely  absent  themselves 
from  the  polls  whenever  an  opportunity  is  pre 
sented  to  vote  for  a  friend  of  the  slave — or  who, 
when  there,  follow7  their  party  predilections  to  the 
abandonment  of  their  abolition  principles — are  rec 
reant  to  their  high  professions,  and  unworthy  of 
the  name  they  assume." 

The  Society  thus  refused  to  turn  its  attention 
from  its  original  object  —  to  make  every  slave  a 
freeman,  to  the  new  and  inferior  one,  of  making 
every  freeman  a  voter.  The  members  felt  that 
this  latter  was  their  more  appropriate  business, 
as  citizens  of  Massachusetts. 

After  the  passage  of  this  resolution,  the  previ 
ous  arguments  of  the  "four,"  for  anew  paper, 
were  reiterated  against  the  report,  by  the  Rev. 
Orange  Scott,  the  Rev.  Daniel  Wise,  and  the 
Rev.  Hiram  Curnmings,of  the  Methodist  Church. 

There  appeared  evidences,  however,  that  the 
Methodist  laity  were  not  so  easily  won  into  the 


112 


toils  of  the  clerical  Congregationalists.  However 
much  they  might  love  their  clergy  and  their  sect, 
they  loved  the  universal  cause  of  liberty  and  hu 
manity  more.  The  venerable  Seth  Sprague  ex 
pressed  this,  with  feeling  and  noble  simplicity,  in 
answer  to  Mr.  Cummings,  of  whose  church  he 
was  a  member. 

"I  love  to  hear  my  young  brother  preach  the 
gospel  ;  but  when  he  talks  of  politics,  it  will  hardly 
be  considered  vanity  in  me  to  say  I  know  more 
about  that  than  he.  For  forty  years  1  have  been 
in  the  political  harness  ;  and  many  a  day,  in  that 
time,  have  I  been  out  to  rouse  men  up  to  the 
polls.  Sir,  I  never  found  any  difficulty  in  it  — 
they  are  always  ready  enough  to  go ;  but  to  make 
them  vote  right,  after  they  get  there — that's  the 
rub.  And  who  can  do  that  like  my  brother  Gar 
rison  ?  His  paper  converted  me,  politically. 

I  have  had  great  satisfaction  in  my  old  age  in 
going  to  all  the  Anti-Slavery  meetings  within  my 
reach  ;  and  as  I  returned  from  them,  with  my 
heart  warmed  by  the  hopes  which  their  union  and 
zeal  and  harmony  had  kindled,  1  thought  within 
myself,  I  am  old  now — an  old  man,  and  shall  not 
live  to  see  the  work  of  emancipation  accomplish 
ed.  But,  on  my  death-bed,  when  about  to  quit 


113 


this  world,  I  shall  joyfully  think  of  those  I  leave 
in  it,  the  abolitionists,  —  a  band  of  brothers  — 
united  as  the  heart  of  one,  to  accomplish  this  great 
work. — But  I  cannot  say  so  now  !  —  I  cannot  say 
so  now  !"  And  the  venerable  man  thought  it  no 
shame  to  weep  over  the  love  and  confidence  he 
had  seen  so  wantonly  betrayed  ;  artd  all  the  peo 
ple  wept  with  him. 

The  opposition  still  wished  to  continue  the 
discussion,  though  noon  was  long  past,  and  their 
words  were  but  repetition  upon  repetition.  Dr. 
Follen  said,  "  I  think  discussion  should  now 
cease,  upon  the  same  principle  that  bids  the 
miller  stop  the  wheel,  when  there  is  no  more 
grain  in  the  hopper." 

The  whole  unmodified  report  was  accepted  — 
Ayes  183  —  Noes  £4.  A  better  proof  than  its 
adoption  could  not  be  offered,  that  the  great  body 
of  the  Massachusetts  Society  separated  that  day, 
with  the  determination  of  carrying  the  work  vig 
orously  forward,  through  means  of  the  elective 
franchise.  They  separated,  with  the  triumphant 
consciousness  of  a  three-days'  battle, 

"  Won  for  their  ancient  freedom,  pure  and  holy!— 
For  the  deliverance  of  a  groaning  earth! 
For  the  wronged  captive,  bleeding,  crushed,  and  lowly, 
Their  voice  went  forth." 

10* 


114 


It  was  a  painful  trial  they  had  passed  ;  painful 
as  when  brother  meets  the  visor'd  face  of  brother 
in  civil  war.  They  had  hoped  that  this  cup 
might  pass,  but  they  had  not  refused  to  drink  it ; 
and  their  eyes  were  opened,  and  the  bitterness  of 
their  grief  taken  away. 

The  same  Board  of  Managers  having  been  se 
lected,  the  acceptance  of  the  report  and  the  re* 
jection  of  the  new  paper,  were  sufficient  indica 
tions  of  the  course  they  were  expected  by  the 
Society  to  pursue.  They  therefore  suggested  to 
their  agents,  Mr.  St.  Clair  and  Mr.  Wise,  that, 
as  there  existed  in  the  Commonwealth  a  difference 
of  opinion  in  regard  to  the  contemplated  period 
ical,  and  there  having  been  no  prospectus  or  spec 
imen  number  issued  by  which  it  could  be  judged, 
it  would  be  proper  to  use  no  efforts  while  en 
gaged  in  their  agency,  to  further  its  introduction 
or  extend  its  circulation. 

But  those  agents  were  already  too  deeply  in 
volved  to  heed  the  suggestion.  The  paper  was 
already  started,  as  an  individual  enterprize,  in  their 
names,  with  those  of  Mr.  Phelps,  Mr.  Scott  and 
others,  to  the  number  of  twenty-seven,  as  a  pub 
lishing  committee,  Mr.  Stanton  acting  as  editor. 
Various  and  discordant  were  the  reasons  given  for 


115 


persevering  in  the  undertaking,  after  the  demon 
stration  of  the  Annual  Meeting,  that  its  necessity 
was  not  of  that  imperative  nature  that  had  been 
represented. 

Mr.  Stanton  stated  that  it  was  a  satellite  of  the 
Liberator,  and  that  he  could  have  wished  it  had 
been  named  "the  Liberator  Junior."  Mr.  John 
E.  Fuller,  on  the  contrary,  when  men  who  had 
never  professed  to  be  abolitionists  hesitated  to 
take  it,  gave  them  to  understand  that  it  was  tc  to 
put  down  Garrison."  Mr.  Wise  described  it  as 
an  "anti  non-resistance  paper,"  and  Mr.  St.  Clair 
as  "a  plan  of  Mr.  Garrison's  own,  warmly  advo 
cated  by  the  wealthy  and  influential  Dr.  Farns- 
worth." 

They  went  on  to  procure  subscribers  in  con 
nection  with  their  lectures,  and  at  the  expense  of 
the  Massachusetts  Society.  Mr.  Scott  and  Mr. 
Stanton  were  no  less  active  in  the  same  way,  at 
the  expense  of  the  National  Society. 

The  paper  was  named  "  The  Massachusetts 
Abolitionist  ;"  and  when  the  array  of  its  twenty- 
seven  god-fathers  appeared,  Mr.  Garrison  direct 
ed  public  attention  to  them,  as  the  nucleus  of  a 
hostile  society  in  Massachusetts.  This  they  in 
dividually  denied ;  but  the  nature  of  the  case,  as 


116 


well  as  their  course  as  individuals,  prevented 
their  denial  from  obtaining  credence.  Coloniza 
tion —  American  Union — Clerical  Appeal — those 
embodyings  of  the  spirit  of  the  reluctant  age  with 
which  abolitionists  were  in  conflict, — had  all  been 
baffled.  But  the  spirit  yet  lived,  subtler  from 
added  experience,  and  this  was  the  new  taberna 
cle  it  had  built.  All  these  movements  had,  at 
their  first  appearance,  comprised  some  of  the 
faithful,  but  deceived.  Great  forbearance  was 
therefore  to  be  exercised,  and  great  efforts  made 
to  unmask  the  deceit. 

This  could  only  be  effected  by  calling  the  at 
tention  of  abolitionists  to  the  personal  conduct  of 
the  men  ;  as  the  paper  itself  was  purposely  kept 
free  from  any  thing  which  could  enlighten  the 
friends  at  a  distance  as  to  the  enmity  of  its  con 
ductors  to  the  Massachusetts  Society.  Their 
scheme  could  not,  at  first,  be  fairly  judged  by 
those  who  did  not  witness  its  less  public  manifes 
tations.  It  was  like  the  fabled  mermaid,  seated 
where  it  could  delude  the  unwary  manner;  — 
above  the  water,  fair  and  human — beneath,  ter 
minating  in  scaly  and  horrible  deformity.  Those 
could  not  fairly  judge  it,  who  did  not  know  that 
its  principal  supporters,  at  the  very  moment  that 


117 


they  disclaimed  hostility  to  the  Massachusetts 
Society,  were  laboring  at  county  meetings  to  dis 
join  the  Counties  from  the  State  organization,  and 
to  divert  funds  f.om  its  treasury;  while,  at  the 
same  time,  they  labored  to  produce  the  most  un 
favorable  impression  from  the  fact  that  its  pledge 
to  the  central  treasury  yet  remained  unpaid. 

The  Massachusetts  Society  was  like  a  ship 
struggling  with  a  heavy  sea.  No  sooner  was  one 
wave  surmounted,  than  another  threatened  its  de 
struction.  The  next  came  in  the  shape  of  an 
answer  from  the  New  York  Committee  to  the  in 
vitation  to  collect  the  money  due,  by  whatever 
means  they  chose,  provided  that  they  should  but 
acknowledge  the  existence  of  the  Massachusetts 
Society.  It  contained  a  refusal  on  the  part  of  the 
Committee  to  abide  by  the  contract  (the  final 
limitation  of  which  had  not  yet  arrived.)  and  de 
clared  their  intention  to  proceed  as  if  neither  con 
tract  nor  Massachusetts  Society  were  in  existence. 
Such  a  step  would  be  so  fatal  to  harmonious  and 
efficient  action  —  so  destructive  to  the  Massachu 
setts  Society,  —  so  disgraceful  to  the  New  York 
Committee,  that,  in  the  hope  that  a  last  strenuous 
effort  might  prevail  against  it,  a  special  deputa 
tion  was  instantly  sent  to  New  York,  to  confer 
with  the  brethren,  face  to  face. 


118 


Arguments,  remonstrance,  entreaty,  were  alike 
in  vain.  One  of  the  Committee  thought  that 
"  New  York  should  nssume  the  entire  control  of 
the  Anti-Slavery  funds,  paying  to  Massachusetts 
such  an  allowance  as  should  be  necessary  for  car 
rying  on  the  cause  in  that  State,  which  sum  would 
not,  he  supposed,  be  large."  All  the  New  York 
brethren  remained  firm  in  their  determination  ;  — 
neither  modification — mitigation — nor  even  what 
the  merchant  often  grants  his  bankrupt  creditor, 
— extension, — could  be  obtained. 

The  Massachusetts  brethren  felt  it  necessary 
to  allude  to  the  new  paper,  and  its  injurious  ef 
fects  on  the  treasury  and  the  cause.  The  reply  of 
the  New  York  brethren  was,  '•'•We  are  neutral" 

Fatal  rock!  to  which  the  blind,  the  feeble,  and 
the  faltering  cling,  as  the  tide  of  controversy  rises 
which  is  to  overwhelm  them,  but  on  which  the 
unfaithful  merely  pretend  to  find  anchorage! 

The  Massachusetts  brethren  turned  to  their 
homes  in  sorrow  and  surprise  at  the  determination 
they  had  been  unable  to  move.  Only  one  course 
remained  for  the  preservation  of  their  Society. 
Its  injury,  if  not  its  destruction,  would  be  the  ne 
cessary  consequence  of  hesitating  to  adopt  it, 
and  they  announced  their  intention  of  public  re- 


119 

monstrance  against  the  conduct  of  the  Ex.  Com 
mittee,  and  a  reference  of  the  whole  case  to  their 
common  constituents  —  the  abolitionists  of  Mas 
sachusetts.  Grief,  they  must,  at  all  events,  have 
felt:  but  astonishment  atthe  result  of  their  confer 
ence  would  have  been  spared,  liad  they  been  in 
formed  that  it  was,  on  one  side,  but  a  mere  form, 
the  whole  affair  having  been  decided,  a  week  pre* 
vious,by  the  issue  of  a  circular,  of  which  the  fol 
lowing  is  an  extract,  signed  by  Messrs.  Stanton, 
Tappan,  Leavitt,  Birney,  and  the  most  prominent 
of  the  New  York  Board. 

"The  amount  which  the  Massachusetts  Board 
had  "guaranteed"  to  pay  to  this  Society  by  the 
first  of  February  just  passed,  was  $7,500.  Of  that 
sum,  but  £3,920  have  been  received,  leaving 
S'3,660  due  to  this  Society.  From  recent  consul 
tations  had  with  the  Massachusetts  Board,  we  are 
fully  authorized  in  saying,  that  the  Board  will 
not  be  able  to  pay  this  sum,  much  less  the  addi 
tional  sum  of  $2,500  to  fall  due  on  the  first  of 
May  next ;  nor  do  we  believe  it  will  be  received 
from  the  abolitionists  of  Massachusetts,  unless  the 
Executive  -  Committee  of  the  American  Society 
send  their  own  agents  into  the  field  to  raise  it. 
To  the  adoption  of  this  latter  course  they  feel 
impelled  by  a  sense  of  the  duties  they  owe 
the  slave.  They  feel  constrained  to  abandon  this 


120 

"arrangement"  for  the  following,  among    other 
reasons  : 

1.  It  works  badly  for  this  Society.  Much  the 
greater  part  of  the  $3,920  received  from  Massa 
chusetts,  has  been  raised  at  the  expense  of  this 
Society,  as  the  following  statement  shows.  It 
was  collected  as  follows  : 

(1.)  By  individuals  and  societies,  and 
sent  directly  to  the  Treasury  of  this  Soci 
ety,  and,  in  the  collection  of  which,  the 
Massachusetts  Society  took  no  part,  $471  1.2 

(2.)  By  the  "  Cent-a-week  Societies, 
through  the  labors  of  N.  Southard,  who 
is  employed  and  paid  by  the  American 
Society,  271  05 

(3.)  By  the  direct  labors  of  Messrs. 
O.  Scott,  Ichabod  Codding,  and  H.  B. 
Stanton,  who  was  employed  and  paid  by 
the  American  Society,  812  42 

(4.)  By  Isaac  Winslow  and  H.  B. 
Stanton,  at  New7  Bedford,  for  circulating 
Thome  and  KimbalPs  journal,  750  00 

(5.)  Received  of  the  Treasurer  of  the 
Massachusetts  Society,  $1,616  24  ;  $500 
of  which  was  collected  by  Messrs.  Stan- 
ton,  Tillson,  and  Thomson, — the  former 
employed  by  the  American  Society  ; — and 
$500  of  which  were  paid  by  the  Bos 
ton  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society,  on  con 
dition  that  Mr.  Stanton  would  deliver  an 
address  before  them,  and  solicit  pledges, 
which  he  did.  Total,  $3,920  83 


121 


Thus,  of  the  $3,920  received  from  Massachusetts, 
since  this  arrangement  was  entered  into,  only 
about  $1,000  at  the  utmost,  have  been  raised  by 
the  Massachusetts  Society.  IN  early  all  the  resi 
due  has  been  raised  by  the  American  Society. 
We  ask  any  candid  man,  if  this  is  "  carrying  out 
the  plan,"  as  contemplated  by  the  resolution  of 
the  Annual  Meeting?  And  is  it  not  suicidal  for 
this  Society  to  pursue  such  a  "  plan  "  any  long 
er  ? 

Ah,  what  a  rent  was  here,  in  the  love — the 
trusting  reverence  with  which  Massachusetts  ab 
olitionists  had  persisted,  against  their  better  judg 
ments,  in  looking  to  New  York  !  What  a  docu 
ment  to  cast  before  her  faithful  men, — this  new 
style  of  account-current,  in  which  what  they  had 
paid,  was  equally  placed  to  their  discredit  with 
what  they  had  not  paid  !  What  a  reproach  to  her 
high-souled  women,  who  had  unreservedly  dedica 
ted  themselves  to  the  cause  !  *  What  a  shock  to 
behold  the  anti-slavery  enterprize  presented  in 
this  degrading  view  to  the  gaze  of  the  world  !  The 

*Those  women  of  the  Boston  Female  Society  who  had  long 
seen  a  tendency  in  the  conduct  of  the  New  York  Committee  to 
injure  the  Massachusetts  Society,  had  taken  pains  to  have  their 
customary  annual  appropriation  to  the  cause  pledged  through  the 
Massachusetts  treasury,  in  anticipation  of  this  very  contingency. 
Their  surprise  was  proportionately  great  at  the  ingenuity  with  which 
their  contribution  was  made  discreditable  to  the  Massachusetts 
Society  and  to  themselves,  by  the  incorrect  assertion  that  it  had 
been  made  in  constquence  of  Mr.  Stauton's  labors. 

H 


122 


American  A.  S.  Society,  placed,  by  this  act  of 
its  committee,  in  the  attitude  of  glorying  in  the 
collectorship  of  coppers  ! — the  Parent  Society, 
(as  it  had  ever  been  affectionately  and  deferentially 
called,)  busied  like  Saturn,  in  devouring  its  pro 
geny  ! 

This  act  created  a  necessity  for  a  procedure 
still  more  vigorous  than  had  been  contemplated. 
The  integrity  and  usefulness  and  good  name  of 
the  National  Society  must,  if  possible,  be  rescued 
from  the  jeopardy  in  which  this  course  of  the 
committee  had  placed  them.  More  than  the  exis 
tence  of  the  Massachusetts  Society  was  at  stake 
— the  cause  was  endangered  by  the  conduct  of  the 
committee  at  this  moment.  It  was  painful  to 
meet  them  on  the  low  ground  of  dollars  and  cents  ; 
but  they  had  taken  the  field  there,  and  there 
they  must,  of  consequence,  be  met  and  rebu 
ked. 

The  Massachusetts  Board,  therefore,  not  only 
issued  an  address  to  the  Abolitionists  ofthe  State, 
as  they  had  given  notice  of  their  purpose  to  do, 
calling  on  them  to  assume  the  conduct  of  the 
affair,  but  they,  at  the  same  time,  gave  solemn 
warning  ofthe  perilous  crisis,  and  appointed  the 
quarterly  State  meeting,  as  a  suitable  time  for 
its  consideration. 


123 


More  confirmation  greeted  the  Massachusetts 
brethren  on  their  return,  of  the  fact  that  their 
agents  were  undermining  the  ground  on  which 
the  Society  stood. 

Mr.  St.  Clair  had  concerted  with  the  Rev.  S. 
Hopkins  Emery,  and  two  or  three  other  clergy 
men,  comprising  one  third  of  the  Bristol  county 
board  of  officers,  and,  in  the  absence  of  the  rest, 
they  passed  resolutions  hostile  to  the  Massachu 
setts  Society,  making  that  county  auxiliary  to 
the  plans  of  the  New  York  Committee,  and  nom 
inating  himself  as  a  county  agent.  He  had  for 
warded  his  resignation  of  his  commission  as  an 
agent  of  the  State  board, — Mr.  Wise  shortly  af 
terwards  followed  his  example,  and  both  were 
thereupon  appointed  agents  of  the  N.  York  Com 
mittee,  in  which  capacity  they  continued  to  la 
bor  in  alienating  the  counties,  and  circulating  the 
new  paper. 

Boards  of  Managers  and  the  people  they 
aim  to  manage,  not  unfrequently  differ,  in  the 
anti-slavery  cause,  as  in  all  other  causes  ;  and 
therefore  it  was  that  the  Massachusetts  Board, 
feeling  no  love  of  management  or  rule,  were  in 
the  habit,  on  every  extraordinary  case,  of  refer 
ring  its  decision  to  their  constituents,  as  the  only 


124 


way  of  presenting  to  each  one  the  opportunity  to 
discharge  his  individual  duty  to  the  Society,  and 
as  the  best  method  of  obtaining  the  manifold  ad 
vantages  of  discussion. 

The  town  and  parish  societies,  in  various  parts 
of  the  State,  began  to  meet  for  the  consideration 
of  this  matter,  which  was  felt  to  be  one  involving 
more  than  a  single  glance  could  unriddle. 

Those  members  of  the  Boston  Female  Society, 
who  had  the  interests  of  the  slave  most  at  heart, 
communicated  with  their  officers,  for  the  purpose 
of  calling  a  meeting.  Their  request  was  not  com 
plied  with.  Again  they  applied,  to  the  number 
of  forty-five,  which  number  was  deemed  a  suffi 
cient  assurance  that  a  meeting  was  seriously 
required  by  the  members.  Notwithstanding  the 
remonstrances  of  two  of  the  counsellors,  the 
President,  Vice  President,  Secretary,  and  Treas 
urer,  the  identical  individuals  who,  in  1837,  re 
fused  to  sustain  the  cause  against  the  incursions 
of  spiritual  wickedness,  still  refused  to  notify  a 
meeting. 

Every  moment  stands  at  the  juncture  of  two 
eternities,  and  is  therefore  of  solemn  consequence; 
but  the  importance  of  making  use  of  this,  was 
more  than  ordinarily  apparent. 


125 


The  women  of  Lynn  were  standing  alone  and 
unsupported  at  the  post  of  danger  ; — the  Massa 
chusetts  Society  in  peril,  never  more  needed  or 
better  deserved  support; — a  hope  existed  that 
George  Thompson  might  again  be  induced  to 
visit  America  by  a  timely  and  earnest  effort  to 
second  the  invitation  of  the  Young  Men's  Con 
vention,  with  the  necessary  funds  ; — Henry  Clay, 
from  his  place  in  the  Senate,  was  calling  upon  his 
fair  countrywomen  "  to  desist  from  anti-slavery 
efforts;" — this  was  the  momen$  taken  by  the  offi 
cers  of  the  Boston  Female  Anti-Slavery  Soci 
ety  to  labor  harder  to  make  it  desist,  than  they 
had  ever  before  done  to  induce  it  to  go  forward. 
They  visited  the  members  personally,  assuring 
them  that  it  was  unconstitutional  to  call  a  special 
meeting* — that  the  board  saw  no  necessity  for 
one,  and  finally  entreated  them  to  take  their  names 
from  the  requisition.  As  one  among  other  rea 
sons  why  they  should  do  so,  the  President  said 
that  she  apprehended  there  was  a  design  on  the 


*  Most  of  the  business  of  this  Society  had,  from  the  beginning,  been 
transacted  in  Special  Sleeting,  and  almost  the  only  power  grant 
ed  to  the  Board  of  this  Society  by  its  Constitution,  is  this,  of 
calling  meetings.  The  Constitution  expressly  states  that  "  the 
President  and  other  officers  ARE  AUTHORIZED  to  call  special 
meetings,"  while  there  is  not  a  syllable  which  authorizes  them  to 
refuse. 

11* 


126 


part  of  some,  to  recall  George  Thompson,  and,  as 
he  left  the  country  in  debt,  his  return  would, 
from  that  circumstance,  be  a  prejudice  to  the 
cause,  and  she  was  therefore  anxious  to  prevent 
a  meeting  !  ! 

By  labors  like  this,  a  meeting  was  hindered 
at  the  time ;  but  as  one  wrong  step  ever  demands 
another  to  sustain  it,  preparation  was  made  for 
the  Society's  impending  quarterly  meeting,  which 
could  not  be  prevented,  by  the  use  of  a  sectarian 
gathering-word,  which  did  not  fail  to  rally  all  the 
unworthy  members  : —  "  Come  and  help  us  to 
put  down  the  Unitarians."  Not  one  in  fifty  of  the 
members  were  of  that  denomination,  and  the  few 
who  were,  had  ever  been  remarkable  for  the  joy 
and  good  faith  with  which  they  met  all  who  differ 
ed  from  them  in  opinion,  and  the  heartiness  with 
which  they  condemned  the  sins  against  freedom 
committed  by  their  own  sect.  Mr.  Phelps,  now  the 
pastor  of  the  Free  Church,  was  also  affording  his 
aid  to  unjustifiable  sectarism,  and,  by  a  meet 
ing  thus  drawn  together,  was  a  majority  obtained 
who  left  undone  all  that  the  interests  of  the  slave 
most  loudly  demanded  should  be  done.  A  ma 
jority,  in  behalf  of  whom  the  President  declar 
ed  at  that  meeting  that "  as  to  the  difficulty  be 
tween  the  Massachusetts  Society  and  the  Execu- 


127 


tive  Committee,  the  ladies  did  not  understand  it — 
they  had  not  come  prepared  to  go  into  it, — it 
would  take  too  much  time — why  should  we  enter 
into  the  quarrels  that  were  going  on  ?"  Yet,  after 
that  very  meeting,  the  President,  and  Secretary, 
as  a  committee  on  the  lair  for  raising  funds, 
issued  an  address,  without  the  knowledge  but  in  the 
name  of  the  whole  Society,  in  which  they  argued 
tfie  necessity  that  existed  that  all  the  women  of 
Massachusetts  should  send  their  funds  to  New- 
York,  because  the  Massachusetts  Society  had 
failed  to  meet  its  stated  payments  ! !  This  circu 
lar  was  committed  to  one  of  the  agents  of  the 
new  paper,  to  be  distributed  in  the  country,  with 
instructions  to  keep  it  private  in  the  city  from 
those  in  ivhose  name  it  was  issued. 

The  minority  of  the  Society,  who  were  neither 
ignorant  nor  unprepared,  and  who  neither  grudged 
their  time  nor  themselves  wholly,  when  the  Anti- 
Slavery  cause  called  for  the  sacrifice,  were  much 
pained  to  find  that  into  this  little  sluice,  opened  at 
the  time  of  the  clerical  appeal,  had  rushed  the 
cold  and  bitter  waters  of  indifference,  and  secta- 
rism  and  chicanery,  in  a  flood  that  threatened  to 
sink  the  little  vessel  that  had,  in  earlier  days,  done 
good  service  to  the  cause.  But  they  knew  their 
place  as  a  minority,  and  prepared  to  fulfil  that  du- 


128 


ty  in  another  capacity,  that  they  were  prevented 
from  discharging  in  this.  The  Massachusetts 
Society, — the  parent  and  pioneer  of  all  the  rest, 
must  not  suffer  for  its  fidelity,  because  the  officers 
of  the  Boston  Female  Society  had  done  wrong. 

They  were,  besides,  a  very  large  and  efficient 
minority,  numbering  among  them  the  women  who 
had  first  originated  and  mainly  sustained,  for  four 
successive  years,  the  plan  of  raising  funds  hy 
means  of  an  annual  fair,  and  they  did  not  permit 
themselves  to  be  hindered  on  this  occasion,  any 
more  than  in  former  years,  by  the  smallness  of 
the  pivot  on  which  the  duty  of  the  moment  turn 
ed.  They  knew  that,  for  a  season,  it  would  appear 
trifling; — they  also  knew  that  it  really  was  the 
type  and  representative  of  a  principle, —  one  of 
the  many  indications  now  observable  of  that  stage 
in  the  progress  of  reform,  when  minds  a  little  en 
larged  by  its  principles,  begin  to  resist,  in  alarm, 
the  philosophical  necessity  of  a  further  widen 
ing  process,  and,  to  avoid  it,  return  to  their  origi 
nal  state. 

But   to    resume    the    Chronological   order  of 
events. 

The  tenth  wave  seemed  about  to  break  upon 
the  Massachusetts  Society.  The  Board  of  Man 
agers  looked  around  them  upon  the  circumstances 


129 


of  their  case,  for  indications  of  the  will  of  Provi 
dence.  They  were  ready  and  desirous  to  cast 
down  the  painful  staff  of  office.  Better  men,  they 
wished,  might  be  found  to  sustain  it  —  but  each 
looked  on  the  other  and  said,  "  Where  can  his  fel 
low  be  found,  for  clear-sighted  devotion  and  faith 
fulness." 

Once  more  they  decided  to  mount  the  breach 
together,  for  the  cause's  sake.  Had  it  been  only 
for  themselves,  they  would  have  scorned  to  stand 
one  instant,  in  the  humiliating  posture  in  which 
the  conduct  of  the  New  York  Committee  had 
placed  them.  But  it  was  for  the  slave — for  their 
brethren  throughout  the  State,  who  had  confided 
in  them  ;  and  they  doubted  not  that  those  brethren 
would  throng  up  to  the  rescue.  This  mutual 
confidence  was  not  misplaced.  The  members  of 
the  Society  came  together  in  great  numbers, 
with  the  determination  of  paying  up  all  arrearages, 
and,  if  possible,  staying  the  destructive  collision  of 
feeling  which  they  saw  going  on. 

The  New  York  Committee  were  not  absent. 
Thither  came  Birney,  and  Torrey,  and  Stanton, 
and  Tappan,  and  St.  Clair,  and  Phelps,  and  Scott ; 
and  face  to  face  they  met  Garrison,  and  Lo- 
ring,  and  Phillips,  and  Chapman,  and  Follen, 
and  French,  and  Brimblecom,  in  the  presence 


130 


of  all  the  people.  Men  from  the  counties  were 
there,  to  tell  how  those  who  should  be  acting  as 
financial  agents,  were  laboring  to  complete  the  di 
vision  which  had,  more  than  any  thing  else,  occa 
sioned  the  deficiency  in  the  funds.  Men  from 
the  towns  were  there,  to  hand  over  their  purses 
with  the  declaration  that  to  their  delay  the  defi 
ciency  should,  in  part,  be  charged,  and  not  to 
their  Board  of  officers.  The  indignant  members 
from  New  Bedford  were  there,  who  had  forward 
ed  eight  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for  the  slave, 
and  had  seen  it  used  for  the  purpose  of  casting 
reproach  on  the  Massachusetts  Society.  And 
there,  too,  was  Lynn,  and  Andover,  and  Plymouth, 
and  Reading,  and  Abington,  and  the  representa 
tives  of  fifty  other  towns,  where  the  Anti-Slavery 
enterprize  had  first  struck  root  and  borne  the 
most  abundant  fruits  —  all  earnestly  bent  upon 
conciliation  —  upon  healing  the  breach,  and  upon 
sustaining  the  Massachusetts  Society. 

In  the  course  of  discussion,  many  things  before 
unknown  appeared.  The  New  York  Committee 
excused  themselves  by  the  plea  of  necessity. 
They  were  dunned  daily  themselves,  and  they 
had  been  compelled  to  this  course  to  get  the  mo 
ney.  "  Had  they  got  it  ?"  asked  Wendell  Phillips, 


131 


u  had  not  all  the  sources  been  stopped  by  this 
proceeding,  against  which  they  had  been  warned  ? 
Why  could  they  not  have  co-operated — why 
could  they  not  still  co-operate  harmoniously  with 
the  State  Board  ?  why  should  their  agents,  Mr. 
Slanton,  one  of  themselves,  among  the  number, 
make  terms  with  the  County  Boards,  which  they 
had  denied  to  the  State  Board  ?  Mr.  Stanton 
could,  it  appeared,  co-operate  with  Mr.  Torrey, 
in  Essex,  raising  funds  for  the  county  treasury, 
and  receiving  only  a  part  of  them  again  for  the 
National  Treasury — why  could  he  not  extend  co 
operation,  on  better  terms,  to  us  in  Boston?" 
The  fact  appeared  that  money  had  been  forward 
ed  to  New  York  by  the  hand  of  agents  on  account 
of  the  pledge,  which  had  never  been  credited  ac 
cordingly.  Men  saw  that  there  had  been  no  de 
lay  or  hesitancy  in  "  taking,  the  Massachusetts 
Board  by  the  throat,  and  crying,  Pay  what  thou 
'owest,"  and  they  inquired  why  their  own  attempts 
to  liquidate  the  debt,  had  not  been  noticed.* 
The  live-long,day  the  discussion  went  on,  the  per 
plexity  in  which  men's  minds  had  been  involved 
becoming  clearer  and  clearer,  till  after  as  complete 

*  Speech  of  Samuel  Reeii,  of  Abington. 


132 


an  investigation  of  the  case  as  could  be  made, 
and  the  most  determined  opposition  on  the  part 
of  the  New  York  Committee  and  those  engaged  in 
the  new  paper,  the  meeting  sustained  the  course 
of  the  Massachusetts  Society,  by  the  passage  of 
the  following  resolution:  ayes  142  —  noes  23. 

Resolved,  That  the  course  pursued  by  the 
Board  of  Managers  of  the  Massachusetts  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  in  relation  to  the  difficulty  now 
existing  between  that  Board  and  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Parent  Society,  meets  our 
hearty  approval. 

Wendell  Phillips  now  renewed  the  offer  of  har 
monious  co-operation. 

. 

Resolved,  That  we  are  ready  harmoniously  to 
co-operate  with  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
American  Anti -Slavery  Society,  in  the  collection 
of  funds  within  this  Commonwealth,  provided 
they  will  act  with  us  under  the  arrangement  of 
June  last. 

Hereupon  the  long-denied  and  painfully-con 
cealed  hostility  to  the  Massachusetts  Society 
burst  forth,  and  the  attempts  to  cast  out  Mr.  Gar 
rison,  or  to  sink  the  Society  with  him,  were  re- 


133 


nevved.  Mr.  Tappan  saw  no  reason  why  the 
Committee  should  expect  to  receive  the  money 
at  all,  unless  by  taking  the  matter  entirely  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  Massachusetts  Society.  The 
Managers  -could  offer  no  better  guarantee  than  at 
first. 

"  We  can — we  do  offer  a  better  guarantee, "re 
plied  Wendell  Phillips.  "  We  are  in  a  far  better 
condition  to  meet  this  pledge,  than  before.  The 
political  campaign  in  the  Fourth  District  is  at  an 
end,  and  will  no  longer  absorb  the  funds,  or  the 
energies  of  the  agents.  We  are  stronger  as  a 
Board  ;  we  have  a  new  General  Agent ;  we  are 
awake,  throughout  the  State,  to  the  emergen- 

CJ.» 

I  Mr.  Stanton  seemed  to  suppose  that  member 
ship  in  the  Massachusetts  Society  implied  an  ob 
ligation  never  to  change  one's  views  on  other 
subjects ;  for  he  read  extracts  from  the  Lib 
erator,  proving  that  Mr.  Garrison  had  changed  his 
opinions  as  to  the  principles  of  civil  government, 
since  the  first  establishment  of  that  paper. 
Rev.  George  Allen  burst  into  vehement  invec 
tive.  u  I  am  ready,"  said  he,  pointing  to  Mr.  Gar 
rison,  "  to  attack  the  wolf  in  his  very  den,  with 
the  bleeding  relics  of  his  mangled  victims  yet  be- 


134 


tween  his  teeth."  Mr.  Birney,  to  the  utter  as 
tonishment  of  the  meeting,  descended  to  the  pre 
scriptive  ground  first  assumed  by  Mr.  Stanton, 
and  intimated  that  no  non-resistant  could  consis 
tently  or  honorably  remain  a  member  of  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Society. 

Men's  minds  went  back  to  the  days  of  the  cleri 
cal  appeal,  when  Birney,  then  an  editor  in  Ohio, 
had  been  tried  and  found  wanting.  That  defi 
ciency,  so  long  veiled  with  silent  and  brotherly 
care  by  those  whom  he  yielded  up  to  the  enemy, 
now  defied  concealment.  He  proclaimed  his 
sympathy  and  knowledge  with  that  of  the  N.  Y. 
Committee,  in  the  recent  plottings.  "WE  felt 
the  need  of  this  new  paper  in  Massachusetts." 

A  sudden  light  burst  upon  the  meeting.  All 
this  whole  long  day's  labored  ringing  of  changes 
upon  "  dollars  " — "  contract " — "  non-fulfilment" 
"  null  and  void  " — all  the  foregone  course  of  the 
Committee, —  it  was  only  a  pretence,  then,  for 
keeping  hostile  agents  in  the  State  to  work  the 
Society's  destruction,  under  pretence  of  obtaining 
money  !  This  debt  of  a  few  thousand  dollars — 
men  now  saw  why  the  wound  it  had  made  should 
be  so  dangerous.  It  was  like  the  scratch  of  a 
poisoned  weapon — slight,  but  possibly  mortal. 


135 


Rodney  French,  of  New  Bedford,  informed  the 
meeting  of  the  manner  in  which  the  funds  of  abo 
litionists  had  been  necessarily  absorbed  ;  those  of 
the  clear-sighted,  in  sustaining  the  cause  against 
the  insidious  attacks  it  had  been  undergoing — 
those  of  the  blinded,  in  unsuspectingly  co-operat 
ing  with  the  disguised  enemy.  Ci  Had  this  paper 
been  presented  in  its  true  colors,''  said  he,  "  no 
funds  would  have  been  swallowed  up  by  it  in  our 
county  of  Bristol.  But  men  have  been  deceived, 
and  they  are  now  finding  it  out.  Let  me  beseech 
our  National  Committee  to  change  the  ground 
they  have  taken.  I  do  entreat  them  to  meet  us 
like  brothers,  and  accede  to  this  resolution.  Tt  is 
an  olive-branch.  The  money  will  easily  be  raised 
by  this  harmonious  co-operation — confidence  will 
be  preserved,  and  the  slave  in  his  chains  will  re 
joice."  Abby  Kelly,  the  delegate  from  Millbury, 
followed  in  the  same  strain.  "  Let  us  even  make 
ourselves  beggars,"  she  said,  "  for  the  slave,  who 
is  denied  the  poor  privilege  of  begging  !"  and  she 
pledged  herself  to  pay  fifty  dollars  of  the  amount 
necessary  to  be  raised,  and  her  town  of  Millbury 
three  times  that  sum.  John  A.  Collins,  the  Gen 
eral  Agent  of  the  Massachusetts  Society,  stepped 
upon  the  platform,  with  securities  to  the  amount 


136 


of  seven  hundred  dollars,  in  his  hands,  and  beg 
ged  Mr.  Birney,  who  had  risen  to  speak,  to  give 
way  for  a  moment,  that  he  might  announce  them 
to  the  meeting.  Mr.  Birney  waved  him  aside — 
"  We  do  not  want  your  pledges  !  "  and  proceeded 
to  reply  to  Rodney  French. — "  If  the  gentleman 
supposes  that  I  will  be  the  bearer  of  such  a  prop 
osition  as  the  one  contained  in  this  resolution,  to 
my  colleagues  at  New  York,  let  me  tell  him  that 
he  has  altogether  mistaken  my  character." 

No  more  remained  to  be  said.  Wendell  Phillips 
immediately  withdrew  the  resolution  so  decisively 
repulsed. 

Mr.  Tappan  commented  with  severity  upon  the 
"  disgraceful  scene  he  had  witnessed,"  and  coun 
selled  a  division  in  the  Society,  saying  that  were 
he  resident  in  Massachusetts  as  he  was  in  New 
York,  he  should  endeavor  to  effect  it. 

A  division  in  the  Society,  because  the  Society 
had  determined,  for  the  slave's  sake,  to  continue  to 
exist;  and  had  sustained  its  Board  of  Managers 
in  their  efforts  for  its  preservation  !  here,  then, 
was  another  layman,  ready  to  do  the  bidding  of 
the  ministry  in  breaking  up  the  Massachusetts 
Society.  He  might  not  be  doing  it  intentionally, 
but  doing  it  men  saw  he  was,  by  this  counsel. 


137 


The  meeting  separated,  but  not  till  multitudes 
had  been  disenchanted  by  that  eight  hours'  session 
of  many  a  fond  belief,  that,  till  then,  had  stood 
undoubted  in  their  minds. 

The  friends  resolved  in  their  inmost  spirits,  as 
they  departed,  to  pay  the  utmost  farthing  of  this 
pledge,  notwithstanding  the  afflicting  disclosure 
the  Committee  had  made  of  their  motives  for 
having  all  along  refused  harmonious  co-operation 
for  its  redemption. 

This  day  had  been  a  painful  one  for  the  Massa 
chusetts  Board  ;  but  they  knew  that  they  had 
done  right,  and  therefore  felt  no  anxiety  as  to 
the  result. 

They  were  sustained  by  the  abolitionists  of  the 
State,  and  they  rejoiced  at  it  ;  not  for  themselves, 
but  as  a  proof  of  the  fidelity  of  their  brethren  to 
the  cause.  They  had  been  sustained  against  the 
most  determined  hostility.  A  statement  of  the 
case,  in  the  form  best  calculated  to  injure  the  So 
ciety,  had,  previous  to  the  meeting,  been  scatter 
ed  broad-cast  over  the  State,  under  the  direction 
of  Mr.  Sianton.  It  was  matter  of  astonishment 
that  so  much  effort  to  do  injury  should  not  have 
produced  a  greater  effect.  Truth  was  mighty, 
and  had  prevailed,  to  strip  the  difficulty  of  one 
12* 


140 


In  full  National  Assembly,  they  resisted  the  idea 
that  a  difference  of  mind  respecting  forms  of  gov 
ernment  was  a  disqualification  for  membership  in 
the  Society.  They  preserved  inviolate  the  an 
cient  broad  foundation.  They  resisted,  as  the 
Massachusetts  Society  had  done,  any  attempt  to 
deprive  women  of  their  constitutional  and  inalien 
able  right  "  to  know,  and  utter,  and  to  argue  free 
ly,"  in  this  National  Council.  A  resolution  was 
also  reported  by  the  financial  committee  of  the 
Society,  that  thirty-five  thousand  dollars  was  as 
large  a  sum  as  could  be  advantageously  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  the  Executive  Committee  during 
the  year ;  as  they  deemed  that  more  could  be 
effected  for  the  cause  by  a  local  than  by  a  cen 
tral  expenditure. 

"The  Society  also  earnestly  requested  the  Exec 
utive  Committee  to  send  no  agents  into  the  States, 
except   with  the  advice  of  the   State   Societies. 
7  This    salutary    measure   was    strenuously  oppos- 
/  ed  by  those  connected   with    the   new  paper  in 
/    Massachusetts.     Previous   to  the   meeting,  they 
labored  personally  and  by  correspondence,  to  se 
cure  the  attendance  of  such  as  would  co-operate 
with  them  for  the  exclusion  of  women,  and  of  the 
non-resisting  members.     The  Executive  Commit 
tee,  too,  were,  some  of  them,  no  less  active  to  the 


141 


same  effect.  Mr.  Birney  issued  an  article  in  the 
Emancipator,  the  organ  of  the  whole  Society, 
and  sustained  from  its  treasury,  in  which  he  as 
serted  not  only  that  a  part  of  the  members 
were  unfitted,  by  their  religious  principles,  for  a 
place  in  the  Society,  but  argued  the  merits  of 
their  principles  per  se,  representing  them  as  iden 
tical  with  those  of  the  bloody  and  licentious  An 
abaptists  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

These  labors  all  fell  short  of  their  aim.  Still, 
as  at  first,  the  Society  continued  odious  by  the 
presence  of  its  founder  :  —  he,  into  whose  heart 
God  had  put  strength  not  to  deny  his  individual 
principles,  though  their  sacrifice  was  demanded 
by  those  whose  love  and  approbation  had  hereto 
fore  been  so  dear,  and  who,  through  four  danger 
ous  and  toilsome  years,  had  stood  with  him, 
shoulder  to  shoulder,  in  the  forefront  of  the  bat 
tle  against  slavery.  Oh  that  evil  tongues  and 
times  had  not  been  too  mighty  for  their  integrity  ! 
May  every  one  of  them  yet  be  enabled  to  see  that 
any  infringement  of  the  principles  of  Freedom,  is 
a  hindrance  to  the  emancipation  of  the  slave,  not 
to  be  removed.by  thousands  of  gold  and  silver,  or 
the  mightiest  physical  array.  May  God  of  his 
infinite  mercy  grant  us,  as  a  NATIONAL  ASSOCIA- 


140 


In  full  National  Assembly,  they  resisted  the  idea 
that  a  difference  of  mind  respecting  forms  of  gov 
ernment  was  a  disqualification  for  membership  in 
the  Society.  They  preserved  inviolate  the  an 
cient  broad  foundation.  They  resisted,  as  the 
Massachusetts  Society  had  done,  any  attempt  to 
deprive  women  of  their  constitutional  and  inalien 
able  right  "  to  know,  and  utter,  and  to  argue  free 
ly,"  in  this  National  Council.  A  resolution  was 
also  reported  by  the  financial  committee  of  the 
Society,  that  thirty-five  thousand  dollars  was  as 
large  a  sum  as  could  be  advantageously  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  the  Executive  Committee  during 
the  year ;  as  they  deemed  that  more  could  be 
effected  for  the  cause  by  a  local  than  by  a  cen 
tral  expenditure. 

The  Society  also  earnestly  requested  the  Exec 
utive  Committee  to  send  no  agents  into  the  States, 
except  with  the  advice  of  the  State  Societies. 
This  salutary  measure  was  strenuously  oppos 
ed  by  those  connected  with  the  new  paper  in 
Massachusetts.  Previous  to  the  meeting,  they 
labored  personally  and  by  correspondence,  to  se 
cure  the  attendance  of  such  as  would  co-operate 
with  them  for  the  exclusion  of  women,  and  of  the 
non-resisting  members.  The  Executive  Commit 
tee,  too,  were,  some  of  them,  no  less  active  to  the 


141 


same  effect.  Mr.  Birney  issued  an  article  in  the 
Emancipator,  the  organ  of  the  whole  Society, 
and  sustained  from  its  treasury,  in  which  he  as 
serted  not  only  that  a  part  of  the  members 
were  unfitted,  by  their  religious  principles,  for  a 
place  in  the  Society,  but  argued  the  merits  of 
their  principles  per  se,  representing  them  as  iden 
tical  with  those  of  the  bloody  and  licentious  An 
abaptists  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

These  labors  all  fell  short  of  their  aim.  Still, 
as  at  first,  the  Society  continued  odious  by  the 
presence  of  its  founder  :  —  he,  into  whose  heart 
God  had  put  strength  not  to  deny  his  individual 
principles,  though  their  sacrifice  was  demanded 
by  those  whose  love  and  approbation  had  hereto 
fore  been  so  dear,  and  who,  through  four  danger 
ous  and  toilsome  years,  had  stood  with  him, 
shoulder  to  shoulder,  in  the  forefront  of  the  bat 
tle  against  slavery.  Oh  that  evil  tongues  and 
times  had  not  been  too  mighty  for  their  integrity  ! 
May  every  one  of  them  yet  be  enabled  to  see  that 
any  infringement  of  the  principles  of  Freedom,  is 
a  hindrance  to  the  emancipation  of  the  slave,  not 
to  be  removed.by  thousands  of  gold  and  silver,  or 
the  mightiest  physical  array.  May  God  of  his 
infinite  mercy  grant  us,  as  a  NATIONAL  ASSOCIA- 


142 


TION  of  Americans,  for  the  redemption  of  our 
country  from  slavery,  the  grace  to  see,  that,  as 
we  can  never  give  what  we  cease  to  possess,  so 
our  labors  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slave  must 
be  in  vain,  after  the  insulted  angel  of  freedom  has 
departed. 

The  Massachusetts  Board  of  Officers  met  im 
mediately  after  this  meeting,  and  decided  to  raise 
five  thousand  dollars,  for  the  year  1839-40,  as 
the  proportion  which  ought,  to  be  borne  by  their 
State,  of  the  thirty -five  thousand  dollars  specified 
by  the  Financial  Committee,  as  the  proper  ap 
propriation  to  the  central  treasury.  They  noti 
fied  the  Executive  Committee  of  this  pledge,  up 
on  the  understanding  that  all  money  raised  in 
Massachusetts  should  be  credited  to  its  redemp 
tion,  and  that  no  agents  of  the  New  York  Com 
mittee  should  labor  in  the  State  without  the  con 
currence  of  the  State  Board. 

To  this  communication,  Mr.  Stanton,  in  behalf 
of  the  committee,  replied,  that  they  had  still  two 
agents  in  the  field,  (Mr.  St.  Clair  and  Mr.  Wise,) 
and  he  inquired  whether  any  objection  would  be 
made  to  their  remaining  in  that  capacity  !  !  ! 

The  New  England  Convention  followed  quick 
ly  upon  the  tread  of  the  National  Meeting.  This 


143 


occasion  had  ever  been,  among  abolitionists,  a 
hallowed  festival,  to  which  each  came  to  receive 
from  all  the  rest  whatever  they  might  be  able  to 
give  of  comfort,  and  of  knowledge,  and  of  cheer, 
and  to  bid  them  all  be  sharers  in  his  own  full  ju 
bilee  of  heart. 

Here  they  had  enjoyed  their  last  earthly  com 
munion  with  the  early-called  and  tenderly-belov 
ed,  who  had  been  caught  up  out  of  the  thick  of  the 
battle  into  heaven  ;  and,  therefore,  the  returns  and 
the  memories  of  this  day, 

"  Like  spots  of  earth  where  angels'  feet  had  stepped, 

Were  holy." 

A  shadow  marred  the  customary  brightness  of 
the  day,  to  those  who  had  witnessed  those  work 
ings  of  the  spirit  of  treachery  and  intolerance, 
which  have  been  traced  in  the  preceding  pages. 

Their  forebodings  were  justified.  This  spirit 
made  one  more  attempt  to  rend  them  as  it  departed ; 
but,  failing  in  its  purpose,  it  deserted  the  founda 
tion  it  had  been  unable  to  destroy.  The  intention 
of  forming  a  hostile  Society  had  frequently  been 
charged  home  upon  the  members  of  the  publish 
ing  committee  of  the  new  paper,  and  as  often  strea- 
nously  denied.  Yet,  here  it  stood,  at  length,  a 


144 


new  organization  in  Massachusetts,  giving,  as  its 
reason  for  coming  into  existence,  the  recreancy,  i.e. 
the  tolerance  of  the  old.  That  it  differed  from  the 
old  Society,  in  not  seeing  that  every  real  interest 
of  mankind  must  be  universal,  and  necessarily 
gather  up  all  men  in  the  prosecution  of  its  march, 
was  narrow,  short-sighted,  unfortunate.  That  its 
founders  had  not  openly  announced  themselves- 
at  the  time  when  Dr.  Hawes  consulted  with  lead 
ing  abolitionists  nearly  a  year  before,  and  that 
they  had  ever  since  been  carrying  on  a  concealed 
warfare  upon  the  old  Society,  in  the  mask  of 
friendship  and  brotherhood,  must  be  very  differ 
ently  characterized. 

Elizur  Wright,  Jr.,  so  well  known  and  loved  of 
abolitionists,  in  days  that  were  past,  was  carried 
away  in  the  toils — another  layman,  in  the  clutches 
of  the  power  that  constitutes  in  New  England  the 
strongest  obstacle  to  emancipation.  He  became 
a  Secretary  of  the  new  organization,  and  the  editor 
of  the  Massachusetts  Abolitionist,  and  immediately 
strove  to  justify  his  course  by  asserting  the  recre 
ancy  of  the  Massachusetts  Society.  He  was  like 
the  child  drifting  from  the  shore,  after  having  un 
moored  his  little  bark,  who  cried  out  that  the  land 
was  rushing  backward,  as  the  treacherous  waves 


145 


bore  him  swiftly  away.  In  the  New  England 
Convention  of  1836,  he  had  deprecated  division, 
in  a  church  so  corrupted  by  slavery,  that  nothing 
but  division  could  save  il  from  destiuction.  In 
1839,  he  was  wrought  upon  by  the  circumstances 
with  which  the  corrupt  leaders  of  that  same  cor 
rupt  body  had  surrounded  him,  to  labor  on  their 
behalf,  for  a  division-  in  the  anti-slavery  ranks. 
Those  who  recollected  his  course  then,  possessed 
a  key  to  his  present  proceedings. 

Some  of  the  leaders  of  the  new  movement  ap 
peared  in  the  N.England  Convention,  after  their 
secession,  and  gave  reasons  for  their  conduct. 
The  reason  of  the  Rev.  John  Le  Bosquet  was, 
that  they  felt  conscientiously  obliged  to  impede 
the  free  and  conscientious  action  of  women  in  the 
anti-slavery  cause.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Trasksaid  that 
they  wished  to  afford  an  opportunity  for  men  of 
name  and  influence,  in  church  and  state,  to  come 
and  take  the  conduct  of  the  anti-slavery  enter 
prise  ; — men  who  now  took  no  interest  in  it,  and 
never  would  do  so,  unless  they  were  made  officers. 
Elizur  Wright  thought  the  new  organization  need 
ed,  because  the  old  Society  had  refused  to  pro 
nounce  the  act  of  voting  at  the  polls  a  fundamen 
tal  principle — a  lest  of  membershipa — Christian 
13 


146 


duty.  That  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  the  So 
ciety  actually  and  conscientiously  went  to  the 
polls,  was  nothing  so  long  as  those  remained  mem 
bers,  in  as  good  standing  as  himself,  who  conscien 
tiously  refused  to  go.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Torrey's  rea 
sons  \vere  all  these,  with  u others  which  had  never 
yet  been  given  by  any  one."  Mr.  Garrison, 
deeply  pained  by  the  wounds  inflicted  on  the 
cause,  had  said,  with  much  feeling,  "  I  could  weep 
tears  of  blood  over  this  division,  if  it  would  avail 
to  stay  its  evils."  Mr.  Torrey,  ridiculing  his 
emotion,  remarked  that,  "  to  see  the  gentleman 
weep  tears  of  blood,  would  indeed  be  a  curious 
physiological  fact." 

Disconcerted  as  the  exclusive  councils  of  the  fra- 
mers  of  the  new  organization  had  frequently  been 
by  the  intrusive  "  common  people,"  they  took, 
from  that  experience,  a  hint  in  modelling  their 
new  constitution.  Not  every  one  who  signed  it  was 
to  be  permitted  to  vote  in  their  Society,  however 
strictly  his  vote  might  be  required  of  him  at  the 
polls.  Only  one  gentleman  for  every  twenty-five 
members  was  to  have  the  privilege  of  uniting 
with  the  officers  and  agents  of  the  Society  in  the 
transaction  of  business. 

Of  the  two  chief  nretences  for  such  an  oreaniza- 


-A* 


tion — the  first,  that  the  subject  of  women's  rights 
to  sustain  civil  and  ecclesiastical  offices  &c.  had 
been  "  dragged  in,"  and  "  hitched  ow,"  (as  the 
phrases  were,)  was  an  entirely  false  pretence, 
that  subject  never  having  been  introduced  in  the 
Massachusetts  Society.  Women  had,  indeed, 
persisted  in  exercising  the  rights  and  duties  of 
members,  which  they  could  not  be  prevented  from 
doing  without  a  violation  of  the  letter  and  spirit  of 
the  Society's  constitution,  and  if  the  necessity  of 
a  new  organization  was  grounded  on  this  circum 
stance,  its  contrivers  were  plainly  hypocritical  in 
striving  to  make  it  auxiliary  to  the  National  Soci 
ety,  which  also  admitted  women.  They  intimated, 
that  they  hoped  to  be  able  to  make  that  Society 
recede  from  its  ground  next  year ; — but  honestly 
bigoted  minds,  conscientiously  opposed  to  wo 
men's  acting  in  the  anti-slavery  cause  on  their 
own  responsibility,  would  surely  never  begin  their 
course  of  opposition  by  the  sin  of  co-operation  for 
a  year.  The  second  pretence,  that  the  old  So 
ciety  had  become  a  no-government  society,  was 
without  a  shadow  of  foundation.  The  strongest 
political  resolution  it  had  ever  adopted,  to  which 
Mr.  Stanton's  resolution  in  1337  was  feeble,  had 
been  passed  this  year.  But,  then  it  had  refused 


148 


to  cast  out  Mr.  Garrison  :  "  ay  !  there's  the  rub  !" 
This  exclamation  of  the  Prince  of  Denmark,  when 
his  mind  was  occupied  with  the  question/' to  be  or 
not  to  be,"  conveys,  in  this  connection,  a  summary 
of  the  reasons  which  decided  the  new  organiza 
tion  "  to  he. " 

The  New  England  convention  decided  that 
such  an  association,  so  gathered,  so  founded  and 
so  organized,  could  not  give  aid  to  any  organiza 
tion  upon  the  old  basis,  which  it  had  deserted  and 
condemned ;  and  they  notified  the  Executive 
Committee  at  New  York  of  the  same.  The  hos 
tility  of  its  founders  to  the  Massachusetts  Socie 
ty — the  difference  it  had  made  as  .to  the  funda 
mental  principles,  the  exclusiveness  of  its  founda 
tion — its  mathematical  position,  working  the  same 
derangement  in  the  anti-slavery  system  as  a  new 
planet  in  the  orbit  of  the  earth  might  do  in  the 
solar  system, — all  forbade  it  fraternal  greeting 
or  long  life. 

The  course  the  New  York  Committee  should 
take  in  action,  would  be  the  measure  of  their  own 
worth  to  the  cause.  So  opposite  were  these  two 
Societies,  that  one  or  the  other  must  needs  be  un 
worthy  of  the  affiliation.  If  the  New  York  Com 
mittee  should,  after  their  well-remembered  wont, 
think  neutrality  possible,  still  to  be  neutral  would 


149 


be  to  spare  the  criminal;  and  "  Judex  damnatur 
cum  nocens  absolvitur." 

From  the  new  organization  thus  formed,  it  was 
planned  to  send  out  division  unto  every  local 
Society.  Mr.  St.  Clair,  and  Mr.  Wise,  who 
had  been  the  Swiss  of  this  warfare,  at  one  time 
during  the  year,  the  agents  of  the  Massachusetts 
Board,  at  another,  of  the  new  paper,  at  another, 
of  the  New  York  Committee,  were  now  made  the 
agents  of  the  new  organization,  for"  complet 
ing  the  work  of  division. 

Tliis  having  been  done,  Mr.  Stanton  no  long 
er  delayed  to  intimate  to  the  Massachusetts 
Board  "that  it  would  be  the  aim  of  the  New- 
York  Committee  to  comply,  as  far  as  they  could 
•conscientiously,  with  the  advice  of  their  constit 
uents  as  to  agents." 

What  was  the  new  organization,  then,  in  re 
ality  ? — men  asked  themselves.  Its  designs  were 
unmasked  by  abolitionists  in  Massachusetts,  as  the 
Annual  Meeting,  the  Quarterly  Meeting,  the  Bris 
tol  County  Meeting,  the  Essex  County  Meeting, 
the  Plymouth  County  Meeting,  the  Worcester 
County  Meetings,  the  Middlesex  County  Meet 
ing,  and  the  multiplied  meetings  of  town  Socie 
ties  had  conclusively  proved.  It  was  but  an 
13* 


150 


agent  of  the  New  York  Committee,  under  the 
name  of  an  organization.  What  would  be  its 
effect  ?  to  fulfil  the  wishes  of  pro-slavery  divines, 
by  multiplying  nominal  abolitionists  of  its  own 
spirit,  as  millstones  about  the  neck  of  the  cause. 
May  the  New- York  Committee  dare  to  claim 
credit  for  veracity,  if  they  but 

"  Keep  the  word  of  promise  to  the  ear, 
."  And  break  it  to  the  sense  ! — 

When,  at  the  Judgment,  they  shall  stand  up  face 
to  face  with  the  New  England  band' of  early  abo 
litionists  who  so  loved  and  trusted  them,  what 
more  can  each  one  of  them  say  than  this: — "  My 
mouth  has  never  lied  to  thee  !  " 

What  is  the  attitude  of  the  contending  hosts  of 
freedom  and  slavery  in  Massachusetts,  at  the  pres 
ent  time — the  summer  of  1839  ?  The  unfaithful 
have  turned  to  flight,  overpowered  by  the  subtle 
ty  and  fury  of  a  'pro-slavery  church  and  ministry  ; 
— have  dishonored  their  Master,  by  conceding  that 
such  a  church  and  ministry  are  his  ; — have  forsa 
ken  and  betrayed  the  faithful,  offering  them  up  as 
a.  propitiation  to  this  ecclesiastical  pro-slavery  ; — 
have  devised  a  new  anti-slavery  organization  on 
hypocritical  and  false  pretences,  behind  which  to 
disguise  their  apostacy  for  a  season. 


151 


The  faithful,  undismayed  by  treachery,  undeter 
red  by  obloquy  and  persecution,  unshaken  by 
abuse,  strengthened  by  experience,  relying  neither 
on  a  pro-slavery  church,  government,  or  ministry, 
but  on  GOD,  and  themselves  as  his  ready  instru 
ments,  have  bound  themselves  more  firmly  to  the 
cause  and  to  each  other,  and  are  laboring  with 
increased  ardor  in  the  promulgation  of  the  truth 
which  alone  can  save  this  slaveholdirig  people. 


CHAPTER   VI. 


CONCLUSION. 

We  know  the  arduous  strife,  the  eternal  laws, 
To  which  the  triumph  of  all  good  is  given, 
High  sacrifice,  and    labor    without    pause, 
Even  to  the  death  : — else  wherefore  should  the  eye 
Of  man  converse  with  immortality  1 

WORDSWORTH. 


FRIENDS  and  co-laborers  for  freedom !  We  have 
now  anew  and  indispensable,  though  painful  duty 
to  perform.  Our  foes  have  hitherto  been  without 
the  pale  of  the  associations  :  we  have  now  found 
the  most  deadly  within.  It  misbecomes  us  to 
talk  of  u  dissensions  among  brethren  " — of"  quar 
rels  among  ourselves," — of  u  dreading  the  strife  of 
tongues," — of  "hiding  ourselves  till  this  calam 
ity  be  overpast."  Without  our  most  strenuous 
exertions,  it  will  never  pass,  but  as  the  remorse 
less  sea  passes  over  the  sinking  vessel.  If  we 
would  free  the  slave,  we  must  meet  and  conquer 
a  tyrannous  influence  and  spirit,  in  the  shape  that 
it  has  now  taken,  as  we  have  done  in  all  its  trans- 


153 


formations  in  the  times  that  nre  ^>ast.  We  must 
disabuse  our  minds  of  the  idea  that  all  are  breth 
ren  in  the  cause,  \vho  call  themselves  such. 

"Do  you  love  freedom?"  is  the  question  we 
have  startled  our  age  withal  ;  and  we  have  be 
gun  to  judge  men  — of  all  classes  and  condi 
tions, —  by  the  reply  their  lives  make  to  it.  Class 
after  class  have  thus  been  tried  and  condemned. 
In  earlier  times,  we  have  bound  ourselves  stead 
fastly  to  the  truth  which  condemned  them.  Its 
might  made  riches  a  reproach,  and  "gentlemen 
of  property  and  standing  "  a  by-word.  All  our 
band  joined  their  voices  to  the  oracular  one  of 
truth,  when  these  sinners  were  tried  by  their  own 
principles  of  action,  and  found  wanting.  Why  is 
it  that  some  now  cast  aside  the  inspired  maxim, 
u  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them  " — when  an 
other  class  of  men — the  ministry,  are  found  re 
creant  to  the  cause  of  humanity  ?  It  is  because 
they  have  become  like  unto  them. 

We  are  not  without  experience  of  the  facility 
with  which  men  add  hypocrisy  to  wrong.  Let 
the  professions  of  such  be  to  us,  from  henceforth, 
as  though  they  were  not  uttered  ;  their  past 
good  deeds,  registered  with  those  of  Lucifer  before 
his  fall.  This  and  this  only,  in  this  emergency, 


154 


is  allegiance  to  the  God  "whose  word  is  truth — 
whose  will  is  love — whose  law  is  freedom-" 

When,  in  earlier  days  in  the  cause,  some  of  us 
foresaw  the  present  state  of  things,  we  submit 
ted  our  souls  to  the  prospect  of  its  painfulness. 
We  said,  "  thy  will  be  done,"  in  thus  keeping  our 
instrumentality  effectual  and  pure. 

"  May  the  numerous  unpopular  questions  with 
which  the  anti-slavery  cause  is  connected  "(thus 
ran  our  prayer)  "  continually  corne  up  with  it  as  it 
is  borne  onward.  So  that,  up  to  the  final  triumph, 
the  act  of  joining  an  anti-slavery  association  may 
be,  as  it  has  hitherto  proved, — a  test-act."  * 

And  so  we  pray  still ;  for  still  and  forever, 
TRUTH  is  one  and  indivisible.  All  moral  questions 
are  by  their  nature  inseparable,  in  any  other 
than  a  mechanical  sense,  and  while  we  sedulous 
ly  keep  them  thus  mechanically  separate,  because 
to  do  otherwise  would  be  a  sin  against  the 
freedom  of  others,  and  a  betrayal  of  their  confi 
dence,  we  feel  it  to  be  no  less  a  sin  against  free 
dom  for  others  to  impede  any  man's  course  with 
reproach,  on  account  of  this  eternal  decree  of 
God's  providence, 

We  have  all  preached  emancipation  by  peace- 

*  Right  and   Wrong  in  Boston,  written  in  1835. 


155 


ful  means ;  and  now  some  are  amazed  that  the 
attainment  of  all  right,  in  like  manner,  should  have 
suggested  itself  to  men's  minds !  We  have  all  de 
nied  that  might  makes  right,  and  asserted  the 
supremacy  of  moral  power;  and  yet  some  are 
standing  in  terror-stricken  astonishment  that  ihe 
"woman  question"  is  stirred  in  every  heart;  and 
"other  some"  are  persecuting  and  forsaking  their 
brethren,  because  the  examination  and  applica 
tion  of  principles,  though  limited  in  the  anti-slave 
ry  society  by  the  terms  of  association,  cannot  be 
stayed  in  men's  minds  or  individual  lives.  The 
time  has  come  for  men  to  look  their  terrors  for 
the  future  in  the  face.  A  little  thought  will  show 
them  thus  much  at  least  ; — that  it  is  no  sin  against 
an  anti-slavery  society,  to  apply,  in  another  asso 
ciation,  the  peaceful  principles  by  which  it  is  pro 
posed  to  abolish  slavery,  to  the  sins  involved  in 
existing  governments  or  sacerdocies.  If  institu 
tions,  religious  or  political,  are  unable  to  stand  the 
test  of  such  an  application,  that,  in  the  opinion  of 
some,  is  the  fault  of  the  institutions.  With  this 
opinion,  anti-slavery  societies  have  no  more  to  do 
than  with  the  question  sometimes  started,  of  the 
duty  of  urging  prayer  upon  the  unconverted, 
whose  prayers  God  pronounces  an  abomination. 


156 


Discussion  of  collateral  subjects  is  often  salutary 
and  necessary  in  our  associations  ;  but  to  a  decis 
ion  upon  them,  by  which  new  tests  of  member 
ship  are  introduced,  no  anti-slavery  society  is 
competent.  It  ceases  to  be  an  anti-slavery  socie 
ty  from  the  moment  it  assumes  to  decide  upon 
opinions  respecting  governments  or  churches. 

No  man  is  required,  as  an  abolitionist,  to  en 
dorse  or  oppose  governments  or  church  e~  b- 
lishments.  But  every  thoughtful  and  honest 
mind,  whether  its  anchor  have  u  entered  into  that 
which  is  within  the  veil  "  or  not,  feels  called  by 
its  allegiance  to  freedom,  instantly  to  resist  any 
attempt  to  make  one  man  accountable  to  another 
for  the  progress  of  his  mind.  This  same  allegi 
ance  to  the  foundation  principle  of  inalienable  hu 
man  rights,  warns  a  man  against  laboring  to  pre 
vent  woman  from  standing  upon  it,  if  such  should 
be  her  determination.  She  may,  in  his  opinion,  be 
sinning  against  propriety — sinning  against  Paul, 
by  acting  in  anti-slavery  societies  :  but  he  himself 
sins  against  freedom  in  striving  for  her  exclusion  ; 
and  any  act  against  freedom,  is  treason  to  the 
slave. 

Men  whose  principles,  thus  imperfectly  de 
veloped,  are  at  war  with  each  other,  will,  in  all 
probability,  become  worse  in  their  last  state  than 


157 


in  their  first,  especially  if  they  are  yielding  not 
so  much  to  their  own  convictions  as  to  the  pre 
texts  in  which  a  public  abstractly  opposed  to  slave 
ry,  is  fain  to  clothe  its  hatred  to  a  real  opposi 
tion.  If  they  are  striving  to  pacify  the  foes  of 
freedom  by  these  outrages  upon  her  principles 
and  her  advocates,  their  case  is  a  desperate  one, 
and  affords  but  little  probability  of  repentance. 

Surrounded  as  we  are  by  the  smoke  and  dust 
of  the  hottest  conflict,  we  must  keep  all  these 
considerations  in  mind,  if  we  would  avoid  perplex 
ity  and  doubt.  Let  us,  from  time  to  time,  sur-> 
vey  the  field  from  a  higher  point  of  view,  and 
take  careful  note  of  the  divisions  of  the  battle, 
and  the  nature  of  the  ground  on  which  the  hosts 
are  encamped.  What  do  we  discern,  as  we  as 
cend  the  mount  of  vision  and  of  difficulty  ?  We 
perceive  hatred  arid  malignant  opposition  occu 
pying  the  same  post  as  when  we  first  roused  tliern 
from  their  apathy.  We  are  ever  contending 
with  our  old  opponents,  under  new  names,  and 
with  every  change  of  name  and  pretext,  some 
whom  we  have  loved  and  trusted,  are  "  carried 
away  by  their  dissimulation.7'  * 


*  See  Paul  to  the  Galatians,  from  \\hichepistleitappears  that  the 
Christian  cause  had  then  reached  a  si-*""  '«"    iis  progress    where  it 

14 


159 


At  the  beginning,  they  were  "  as  much  Anti- 
Slavery  as  any  one,  hut  hated  Mr.  Garrison." 
What  are  they  now  ?  Even  "  more  Anti-Slave 
ry  than  any  one,  but  hate  Mr.  Garrison." 
Through  all  their  various  phases  of  Colonization- 
ists,  American  Unionists,  Clerical  Appellants,  new 
organizationists,  their  moving  spirit  is  the  same  ; 
— hatred  of  the  freedom  that  defies  their  control. 
Even  while  professing  to  be  laboring  for  emanci 
pation,  they  have  always  been  careful  to  express 
their  hatred  of  the  free  spirit  in  which  abolition 
ists  carry  on  the  enterprize.  It  must  needs  be  so. 
There  is  eternal  enmity  betveen  the  spirit  which 
prompts  a  man  to  strive  for  the  mastery,  and  the 
spirit  which  calls  no  man  master.  It  is  an  eter 
nal  truth,  that  he  who  wishes  to  rule,  is  unfit  to 
serve. 

From  this  point  of  observation,  we  may  notice 
not  only  the  timidity  and  treachery  of  some,  but 
the  touching  fidelity  of  others.  A  single  individ 
ual  was  once  exalted  by  our  opponents  into  a 
symbol  of  faithfulness  to  liberty  and  humanity. 
Now,  the  whole  associated  host  of  a  State  are 

was  beset  with  the  same  difficulties  as  the  anti-slavery  cause  at 
present  meets.  It  had  so  diminished  the  trust  in  the  existing  in 
stitutions,  and  so  strengthened  the  reverence  for  piinciples,  that 
many  professing  Christianity,  were  driven  back  into  Judaism. 


159 


assailed  with  slander  and  contempt  for  a  like 
fidelity. 

In  this  symbolic  sense,  an  association  is  endow 
ed  by  the  enemies  of  truth  and  freedom  with  a 
notoriety  and  importance  not  its  own.  In  every 
such  case,  we  have  a  finger  of  Providence,  point 
ing  out  to  us  the  course  we  should  pursue  with  re 
spect  to  it.  Identifying  ourselves  with  it,  we  listen 
for  the  voices  that  have  been  wont  to  cheer  the 
onset.  The  soul  that  is  now  silent  is  self-con 
demned. 

Let  us  enlarge  our  horizon  by  ascending  still 
higher,  so  that  we  can  at  a  glance  command  the 
present  and  the  past;  for  so  come  many  instruc 
tive,  lessons  to  the  mind.  We  behold  far  back  in 
the  distance,  days  like  those  of  Wat  Tyler,  of 
Wycliffe,  of  Knox,  and  Luther  and  Washington. 
On  closely  observing  any  such  era  of  accelerated 
progress,  we  perceive  great  bodies  of  men,  unac 
countably  to  us,  giving  back  at  a  critical  instant — 
thrown  into  confusion  by  circumstances  which  we, 
at  this  distance  of  time,  discern  to  have  been  of 
but  the  smallest  moment  ;  and,  seeing  how  the 
speedy  and  triumphant  success  of  the  right  is  there 
by  prevented,  we  suffer  a  sort  of  pain  that  we  are 
unable  to  cast  upon  their  path  the  light  of  our 


160 


knowledge.  "Had  they  but  known  what  we  so 
readily  discern,"  we  exclaim,  "how  different 
would  have  been  their  course  1"  and  we  marvel 
that  they  were  unable  to  break  the  spell  that 
bound  them,  and  which  one  added  glance  of  fore 
sight  or  of  faith  would  have  shivered. 

We  forget  that,  besides  the  natural  obscurity  of 
the  hour  unilluminated  by  the  future,  there  is 
ever  a  shrinking  terror  on  men's  minds,  which 
forbids  them  boldly  to  face  the  phantoms  of  their 
own  times  : — a  spurious  charity  for  wrong,  which, 
prompted  by  a  vision  of  oneself  m  a  similar  con 
demnation,  is  not  forgiveness,  but  treachery  to 
Right.  We  overlook  the  obvious  consideration 
that  those  transition  periods  were,  like  our  own, 
infested  with  the  treacherous  and  the  selfish, 
whose  fancied  interest  it  was  to  suppress  facts, 
circulate  falsehoods,  make  up  false  issues,  apol 
ogise  for  wrong,  palliate  crime,  veil  baseness  un 
der  "  decent  pretexts,"  exalt  profession  into  per 
formance,  and  by  any  and  every  means  delay 
impending  change. 

This  reflection  should  remind  us  that  such 
light  as  we  are  fain  to  cast  upon  past  times  in  our 
impatience  of  their  blindness,  is  the  same  as  duty 
binds  us  to  communicate  to  our  own.  When  we 


161 


observe  the  importance  of  small  things  in  the 
world's  history;  it  should  point  us  to  the  cheerful 
discharge  of  so  lowly  a  duty  as  to  record  those  in 
which  we  have  been  engaged.  Let  us  not  deem 
any  of  them  so  unimportant  as  to  refuse  to  draw 
from  them  lessons  of  wisdom,  nor  strive  to  per 
suade  ourselves  that  aught  can  be  trifling,  which 
is  wrought  into  the  great  page  of  the  past.  "  To 
serve  the  nineteenth  century  we  must  know  the 
nineteenth  century :"  therefore,  nothing  is  with 
out  consequence  which  helps  to  illustrate  our 
times.  Facts,  warnings,  rebuke,  encouragement, 
consolation,  advice,  labor, —  whatever  the  times 
demand,  let  us  give  as  we  have  power  and  op 
portunity,  and  we  shall  soon  be  made  to  know 
what  it  was  that  kept  so  great  a  distance  between 
the  words  of  lonely  warning  that  have  risen 
prophet-like  upon  the  past;  and  why,  at  some  pe 
riods,  there  could  be  no  "  open  vision"  or  corres 
ponding  energy,  but  only  the  feebleness  and  incer 
titude  of  ignorance  and  fear.  Custom  is  never, 
by  her  nature,  the  handmaid  of  freedom  ;  and 
therefore  in  a  struggle  for  the  extinction  of  slave 
ry,  if  we  speak  only  according  to  custom,  we  shall 
lose  the  unhesitating  distinctness  which  the  occa 
sions  of  the  cause  demand.  The  occasion  now 
14* 


162 


demands,  in  an  especial  manner,  the  plain  direct 
ness  of  the  very  palace  of  truth. 

Let  us,  however,  avoid  the  mistake  of  suppos 
ing  that  we  can  find  in  the  past,  the  exact  paral 
lel  of  the  present,  in  any  other  than  a  spiritual 
sense.  Truth — Love — Freedom — are  ever  the 
same;  but  the  outward  signs  of  their  presence, 
and  the  manner  of  their  workings  upon  society, 
will,  at  different  times,  be  far  unlike.  The 
problems  they  present,  may  be  wrought  out  by 
different  processes,  though  the  results  are  the 
same.  This  reflection  will  enlighten  us  as  to  the 
causes  of  the  convulsive  terror  now  manifested 
by  the  body  of  the  ministry  and  their  dupes — the 
clerical  politicians.  We  shall  learn  how  it  came 
to  pass  that  the  latter  were  desirous  of  disjoining 
themselves  from  the  abolition  host,  while  they 
yet  claimed  the  name  of  abolitionists.  We  shall 
see  on  what  temptations  they  have 

"  fallen  away 

Like  water  from  us,  never  found  again, 
But  where  they  mean  to  sink  us. " 

At  the  outset,  they  were  encouraged  by  the  com 
paratively  quiet  progress  of  abolition  in  England, 
to  believe  thai  our  own  would  necessarily  follow 
the  same  course.  Strong  as  was  the  agitation 


163 


there,  it  effected  its  work,  without  shaking  the 
ponderous  establishments,  civil  and  ecclesiastical, 
which  bore  down  upon  the  land  with  their  "  weight 
of  calm."  Here,  on  the  contrary,  the  lighter 
yokes  of  church  and  state  are  so  shaken  by  the 
contest,  as  to  convulse  those  hearts  with  terror 
for  their  existence  which  lack  the  honesty  to  ac 
knowledge  the  worse  than  uselessness  of  a  church 
or  a  government  which  sustains  slavery,  and  the 
humble  faith  in  God  to  say, 

««  Whatever  fall — whate'er  endure, 
^     1  know  thy  word  shall  stiH  stand  sure," 

When  such  lose  their  confidence  in  the  identity 
of  the  principles  of  freedom,  with  those  of  order 
and  Christianity,  they  are  disunited  in  soul  from 
those  who  are  pressing  forward  with  undiminish- 
ed  confidence  ;  and  to  disguise  their  change  of 
feeling  they  sacrifice  their  integrity.* 

In  our  grief  at  their  conduct,  we  undergo  strong 
temptations  to  palliate  and  conceal,  when  we 
ought  to  expose  and  condemn.  The  greater 
need,  therefore,  that  we  often  ascend  the  mount 

*  Better,  far  better,  said  the  organ  of  the  clerical  appellants  in 
1837,  that  slavery  should  remain  perpetual,  than  that  the  existing 
institutions  with  which  it  is  so  intimately  interwoven,  should  bs 
disturbed.  To  most  minds  conies  this  moment  of  distrust  of  the 


164 


of  communion  with  the  HIGHEST,  there  to 
strengthen  our  vision  and  our  hearts. 

"  Weak  eyes  on  darkness  dare  not  gaze: 
It  dazzles  lik*  the  noontide  blaze. 
Bat  he  who  «ees  GOD'S  lace,  may  brook 
On  the  true  face  of  sin  to  look." 

"  Some  natural  tears  we  shed"  over  those 
who  have  turned  back  from  the  van,  and  are 
trampling  down  the  ranks  they  once  cheered  on 
ward  ;  but  thus  strengthened  and  enlightened, 
we  shall  not  long  indulge  a  useless  sorrow.  We 
shall  cease  to  be  impatient  when  those  whom  we 
yet  believe  true,  are  slow  to  see  and  to  act,  in 
an  emergency  requiring  promptitude.  We  shall 
but  redouble  our  own  laborious  vigilance  ; — we 
shall  but  make  more  intense  our  own  fervent  en 
deavor.  We  are  laying  the  foundations  of  many 

principles  of  righteousness — want  of  faith  in  God.  Orange  Scott, 
who  then  stood  firm,  has  in  this  last  crisis,  deserted  the  cause,  mov 
ed  by  (he  same  temptation.  When  he  sees  Church  and  State  shak 
en  by  the  advent  of  righteous  and  free  principles,  "  upon  the  earth 
distress  of  nations  with  perplexity — the  sea  and  waves  roaring — 
men's  hearts  failing  them  for  fear,  aud  for  looking  after  those  things 
which  are  coming  upon  the  earth,"  he  says—"  Slavery  is  the  least 
evil  of  the  two."  With  propriety  might  he  be  asked,  with  what 
feelings  would  the  slave  of  the  Louisiana  sugar  cauldron  contem 
plate  .the  utter  destruction  of  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  arrange 
ments  by  which  he  is  crushed,  soul  and  body  1  Would  he  say 
better,  far  better  that  slavery  should  remain  perpetual  as  *'  the 
least  evil  of  the  two  1 "  Yet  we  are  commanded  to  remember  those 
in  bonds  as  bound  with  them.  JJoyvever  deep  may  be  our  attach 
ment  to  institutions,  we  must  do  right,  in  the  faith  that  righteous 
ness  can  destroy  no  good  thing. 


165 


generations  ;  and  need  not  to  be  disturbed  by  the 
discomposure  of  such  as  comprehend  us  not. 
What  though,  to  our  human  weakness,  the  end  to 
be  attained  seem  farther  off,  as  faithfulness  rous 
es  indifference  into  opposition,  or  converts  spir 
itual  terror  into  treachery  ?  yet  is  the  day  of 
redemption  nearer  than  when  we  believed.  What 
though,  in  future  and  severer  perils  which  we 
KNOW  beset  the  path  we  must  go,  we  should, 
for  a  season,  be  deserted  of  all  in  whom  we  trust 
ed  for  aid  in  this  work  of  redemption?  even  our 
Savior  was  left  to  u  watch  alone  one'  bitter  hour," 
before  any  comforting  angel  was  sent  of  heaven  to 
strengthen  him. 

Truth — Love — Freedom  !  evermore  must  their 
victories  for  humanity  be  won  through  suffering— 
but  they  shall  be  WON.  "Forever,  Oh  Lord! 
thy  word  is  settled  in  heaven." 


APPENDIX. 


The  following  letters  are  selected  and  subjoin 
ed  as  specimens  of  the  secret  correspondence  of 
this  period. 

[CONFIDENTIAL.] 

Salem,  Dec.  1th,   1838. 
REV.  S.  J.  MAY. 

Dear  Brother, — I  presume  you  have  been  con 
sulted  on  the  subject  named  below  ;  but  my  anx 
iety  on  the  topic,  leads  me  to  write  you.  We 
found,  some  time  ago.  that  the  admission  of  other 
subjects  into  the  Liberator  had  entirely  destroyed 
its  circulation,  in  many  parts  of  this  County,  and 
others  were  gradually  dropping  it,  while  a  large 
proportion  of  our  most  efficient  abolitionists  were 
uneasy,  and  took  it  only  because  they  must  have 
the  local  Anti-Slavery  news  of  this  State.  As  a 
paper  more  generally  circulated  and  exerting  a 
better  influence  was  felt  to  be  necessary,  to  ad 
vance  the  cause  in  this  County,  we  attempted  to 
start  a  local  Anti-Slavery  paper  here.  But  some 
were  afraid — a  few  loudly  opposed  ;  and  the 
great  expense,  (far  exceeding  our  first  estimates,) 
finally  deterred  us  from  the  undertaking.  Still 
the  conviction  of  the  necessity  of  a  paper,  de  - 


168 


voted  to  Anti-Slavery  alone,  which  might  circu 
late  without  objection,  among  all  classes  of  our 
friends,  has  daily  gathered  strength — and  many 
who  opposed  our  project  then,  alarmed  at  the  de 
moralizing  doctrines  now  promulgated  in  the  Lib 
erator,  say  \ve  must  have  a  paper,  at  all  events. 
I  have  no  desire  to  injure  Mr.  Garrison.  His 
services  in  the  cause  entitle  him  to  something 
more  than  gratitude.  But  the  Liberator  will,  of 
course,  remain  under  his  control,  and  will  continue, 
no  doubt,  to  pursue  the  same  course  it  has  for  a 
year  past  ;  and  it  cannot,  therefore,  continue  to 
be  the  Anti-Slavery  paper  of  the  State,  without  a 
virtual  endorsement  of  its  doctrines.  JXor  will  it 
have  a  free  circulation  among  the  large  portion, 
the  immense  majority,  of  the  Anti-Slavery  com 
munity,  who  dissent  from  its  new  views.  Now 
the  Massachusetts  Anti-Slavery  Society  is  a 
pretty  considerably  large  and  somewhat  important 
body — and  why  should  it  not  have  an  official  or 
gan,  of  communication  with  the  public,  to  be  de 
voted  to  Anti-Slavery  alone  ?  I  am  not  particu 
lar  about  the  editor.  If  Mr.  Garrison  would 
edit  such  a  paper,  and  devote  his  whole  time  and 
strength  to  it,  instead  of  leaving  it  to  printers' boys 
and  every  body,  as  he  has  the  Liberator  for  two 
years  past,  1  should  be  perfectly  pleased  to  have 
him  editor,  though  of  course  he  would  not  consent. 

O  t/ 

Quite  a  large  number  of  our  old  and  steatlfast 
friends,  who  have  been  consulted,  are  favorable 
to  the  thing.  It  will  be  brought  forward  by  me, 
at  the  Annual  Mee'>"°-  :r:t  ^  f^-"-!  »W  our  rli.- 


169 


creet  friends  generally  approve  of  it.  Please 
communicate  your  views  to  me  freely  and  confi 
dentially  (if  you  wish.)  1  have  no  time  this  morn 
ing  to  say  a  word  on  other  topics. 

With  respect  and  affection, 

CHARLES  T.  TORREY. 


&akm,  Dec.  19th,  1838. 
DEAR  BROTHER  MAY, — 

1  dont  know  but  my  mentioning  the  objections 
some  felt  to  the  Liberator,  led  you  to  think  of  the 
project  of  a  new  paper,  as  a  sort  of  opposition 
line  to  the  Liberator.  But  this  is  far  from  my 
idea  of  the  matter.  True,  the  character  and  con 
tents  of  that  paper  exclude  it  from  circulation  in 
this  county  so  extensively,  that  it  does  not  answer 
the  purpose  of  advertising  our  County  Meetings 
even.  Nor  will  its  circulation  increase.  In  some 
of  the  strongest  Anti-Slavery  towns,  where  mos; 
is  done  for  the  cause,  scarcely  a  single  copy  is 
taken,  or  can  be  got  in.  So  it  is  all  over  the 
State.  1  suppose  not  more  than  half  the  circu 
lation  of  the  Liberator,  (probably  not  one  third,) 
is  in  Massachusetts.  Nor  will  thesi  state  of 
things,  in  that  respect,  be  materially  changed  at 
present,  in  my  judgment.  I  think  it  certain  that 
papers  from  New  York  or  elsewhere,  cannot  do 
for  our  State  to  act  efficiently.  And  that  there 
are  thousands  of  abolitionists,  and  others  who 
need,  and  would  take  a  paper,  wholly  devoted  <r 
15 


170 


Anti-Slavery  and  published  at  Boston,  admits  not 
of"  a  question.  It  would  have  five  hundred  to 
one  thousand  subscribers  in  this  County,  at  once. 
Now,  1  think  the  good  of  our  cause  demands  of  us, 
that  such  a  paper  be  started,  and  a  small  monthly, 
like  "  Human  Rights,"  besides.  And  if  it  is  done 
as  our  official  State  paper,  there  can  be  no  ground 
for  considering  it  as  in  opposition  to  the  Liberator. 
Whereas,  if  individuals  start  a  paper,  the  case 
will  be  just  the  reverse.  It  will  then  be  a  rival 
to  the  Liberator,  and  will  materially  injure  its 
circulation.  Now,  a  State  official,  confined  to 
Anti-Slavery  exclusively,  will  not  cross  the  track 
of  the  Liberator  scarcely  at  all.  I  have,  so  far* 
heard  of  not  a  syllable  of  disapproval  but  from 
yourself,  from  any  part  of  the  State.  I  do  still 
hope,  on  reflection,  you  will  think  differently  of 
the  tiling.  Th^re  can  be  no  evil,  or  warfare,  it 
seems  to  me,  unless  those  who  like  the  Liberator 
insist  that  it  shall  be,  virtually,  t/ie  State  Paper, 
while  not  so  in  form,  and  choose  to  claim  the 
whole  of  the  vast  unoccupied  field,  in  this  State, 
as  its  own.  But  if  they  resist  and  successfully, 
the  measure  proposed,  then  all  peace  or  com 
promise  will  indeed  end.  A  new  paper  will,  no 
doubt,  be  started,  as  an  individual  enterprize,  and 
it  will  not  spare  the  peculiarities  of  opinion,  etc. 
manifested  in  the  Liberator.  It  is  true,  it  is  open 
to  controversy  on  peace,  etc.  But,  on  that  very 
account,  it  has  no  claims  to  be  the  Anti-Slavery 
paper  of  Massachusetts,  and  to  circulate  as  such, 
among  those  who  reluctantly  take  it  for  its  local 


171 


news,  while  they  cannot  endure  its  sectarianism. 
Now,  my  dear  Brother,  I  have  written  very 
plainly  what  1  think.  Do  consider  the  matter 
again  and  maturely.  Our  cnuse  must  be  prose 
cuted  at  all  hazards  and  sacrifices,  but  that  of 
principle,  and  I  do  think  duty  to  our  cause  re 
quires  a  new  paper  wholly  anti-slavery.  If  those 
who  like  the  Liberator  cannot  then  sustain  it, 
what  will  it  prove,  but  the  absolute  need  of  a  new 
paper  ? 

Yours,  as  ever,  for  the  slave,  and 
with  much  affection, 

CHARLES  T.  TORREY. 


Salem,  Jan.  7th,  1839. 

Dear  Sir, —  I  write  to  urge  the  importance 
of  a  full  representation  of  your  society  at  the  An- 
unal  Meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  on  the  23d  and  24th  of  this  month. 
Measures  of  very  great  importance  to  the  progress 
of  the  cause  throughout  the  State  will  be  brought 
forward,  particularly  the  establishment  of  a  new 
paper,  of  high  character,  to  be  devoted  to  Anti- 
Slavery  only  ;  and  to  be  under  the  official  con 
trol  of  the  State  Society  ;  one  which  will  urge 
political  action  as  a  Christian  duty,  in  accordance 
with  our  original  principles  of  association.  Other 
things  of  equal  moment  to  the  onward  progress  of 
our  cause,  will  be  presented — probably  on  the 


172 


first  day  of  the  meeting  ;  other  and  obvious  con 
siderations  will  show  the  great  importance  of  hav 
ing  a  full  representation,  from  two  to  twenty  from 
every  Society.  Let  every  one  who  can  attend, 
do  so.  Let  none  be  chosen  who  will  not  attend. 
Select  the  most  judicious  and  tried  friends  of  the 
cause,  and  let  them  be  there  at  the  opening  of 
the  meeting,  at  ten  ^o'clock  oh  the  23d,  and  be 
prepared  to  stay  two  days. 

If  your  Society  meets  to  chose  delegates,  let 
there  be  an  expression  of  opinion  about  the  new 
paper,  (to  be  purely  Anti-Slavery,  and  nothing 
else;  to  oppose  nothing  but  slaveholding  and 
doughface-ism)  and  let  the  vote  be  embodied  in 
the  instructions  of  the  delegates. 

Please  to  see  the  officers  of  your  Society,  and 
have  your  delegation  promptly  appointed. 
Yours,  for  the  slave, 

CHARLES  T.  TORREY. 
Rec.   Sec.  Essex  Co.  A.  S.  Society. 


Boston,  April  2d,   1838. 

Dear  Brother, — I  understand  that has 

left,  or  is  about  leaving  you,  and  that  you  are  on 
the  lookout  for  a  successor.  Permit  me  to  re 
commend  to  you, . 

And  now  a  word  in  respect  to  abolition.  You 
are  aware  of  the  collision  between  the  State  and 
National  Societies — have  seen,  I  suppose,  the 


173 


statement  of  the  case  in  the  "  Cl  ristian  Journal, 
Extra" — and  know  that  your  County  Board  have 
taken  supervision  of  the  field  within  your  County, 
and  invited  in  the  agents  of  the  American  Society, 
thus  virtually  taking  sides  with  that  Society. 
Well,  your  County  Society  is  to  meet  soon  in 
New  Bedford,  at  which  time  and  place,  I  have 
no  doubt  an  effort  will  be  made  to  undo  what  the 
County  Board  have  done,  and  to  pass  resolutions 
sustaining  the  State,  and  condemnatory  of  the 
County  and  Parent  Boards  ;  and  what  with  the 
Quakers  and  colored  people  in  New  Bedford,  it 
will  not  be  strange  if  the  attempt  succeeds. 

What  your  views  on  the  matter  in  dispute  are, 
I  know  not,  nor  is  it  of  any  importance  for  me  to 
know,  so  far  as  it  concerns  what  I  wish  now  to 
say  to  you.  I  will  only  say,  then,  as  I  cannot  go 
now  into  the  matter  in  detail,  that  I  regard  the 
Parent  Committee  in  the  right.  They  ought  to 
be  sustained.  Nor  do  I  believe  that  the  State 
Board  would  ever  have  sent  out  their  protest  but 
for  certain  "  ulterior  measures"  which  they  wish 
ed  to  accomplish  thereby — one  '^of  these  is  to 
crush  the  Massachusetts  Abolitionist,  by  shutting 
out  of  the  State,  the  Agents  of  the  Parent  Society 
who  are  generally  favorable  to  it,  and  where 
they  can  do  it,  without  interfering  with  the  duties 
of  their  agency,  are  in  the  habit  of  getting  sub 
scribers  for  it — another  is  to  make  the  Society 
Anti-Orthodox  in  its  influence — and  another,  by 
having  the  entire  control  of  the  cause  in  the  Slate, 
to  take  advantage  of  it  for  the  promulgation  of 


174 


non-resistance,  no-government,  &c.  &tc.  1  can 
give  you  facts  when  I  see  you  that  will  bear  me 
out  in  all  these  positions.  The  truth  is,  Garrison 
and  the  Board  are  themselves  guilty  of  the  very 
things  they  are  charging  on  others.  They  are 
just  in  the  attitude  of  the  man  who  cries  "  Stop 
thief,"  that  he,  undercover  of  that  cry,  may  make 
off  with  the  stolen  goods.  I  hope  to  see  you  and 
converse  with  you  at  length  on  these  subjects  by 
and  by.  Meanwhile,  if  you  agree  with  me  that 
the  Parent  Committee  ought  to  be  sustained,  I 
hope  you  will  see  that  the  meeting  at  New  Bed 
ford  is  not  a  packed  one,  but  that  those  who 
think  with  us,  as  well  as  others,  are  on  the  ground 
prepared  to  hear  the  case,  and  take  proper  action 
thereon,  should  it  come  up.  Remember  me  affec 
tionately  to  your  family. 

Yours  truly,  A.  A.  PHELPS. 

P.    S.  Brother is  a  good  abolitionist — 

but  wise  and  prudent  at  the  same  time  that  he  ig 
firm  and  decided  on  the  subject.  Of  course  he 
would  not  make  a  hobby  of  it. 


Such  efforts  and  accusations  as  the  above  letter 
Mr.  Phelps  did  not  hesitate  privately  to  put  forth 
against  his  brethren  of  the  Board,  though  he  never 
intimated  to  them,  personally,  that  any  such  im 
aginations  darkened  }iis  mind.  Arid  even  on 
resigning  his  seat  with  them,  one  month  after  the 


175 


date  of  this  letter,  he  did  not  intend  that  his  rea 
sons  for  doing  so  should  be  made  public.  His 
own  testimony,  respecting  similar  allegations  pre 
sented  as  reasons  for  the  formation  of  a  new  So 
ciety  only  a  year  previous,  is  true  now.  At  the 
moment  that  this  letter  was  written,  the  Massa 
chusetts  Society  had  eight  Orthodox  Agents  in 
the  field,  and  but  one  of  another  belief.  True, 
the  Society  could  not,  without  violating  its  prin 
ciples,  become  an  Orthodox  Society  exdusirdij ; 
but  the  Society  did  deem  it  a  fortunate  circum 
stance  that  Orthodox  pro-slavery  should  be  met 
and  exposed  by  Orthodox  anti  slavery. 

Who  that  reads  'Mr.  Phelps's  testimony,  Jan. 
1838,  as  given  below,  but  must  deeply  compas 
sionate  the  struggle  and  concealment  and  weak 
ness  of  soul  which  afterwards  completely  over 
powered  him,  notwithstanding  his  better  knowl 
edge,  and  dictated  his  course  during  the  remain 
der  of  that  year,  up  to  the  formation  of  a  new 
organization,  in  1839,  and  until,  as*  the  climax  of 
his  course,  lie  submitted,  to  be  examined  for  in 
stallation  as  pastor  of  the  Free  Church,  by  the 
well  known  pro-slavery  divine,  the  Rev.  Hub- 
bard  Winslow.  . 


176 


MR.  PHELPS'S  TESTIMONY  IN  1839. 

"  And  last,  not  least,  there  must  needs  be  a  new 
organization,  and  a  withdrawal  from  the  Massa 
chusetts  Society,  because,  "  both  the  organ  and 
management  of  it  are  under  anti-orthodox  influ 
ence."  True,  there  is  not  as  much  orthodoxy  in 
either,  as  I  wish  there  was,  and  as  I  think  there 
ought  to  be  ;  but  it  is  not  the  result,  so  far  as  1 
have  seen,  of  any  trickery  on  the  part  of  those 
who  are  not  Orthodox,  nor  of  any  disposition,  on 
their  part,  to  make  Orthodoxy  or  Anti-Orthodoxy 
a  test  of  membership  or  office.  And  as  it  is,  full 
one  half  the  officers  and  managers  of  the  Society 
are  Orthodox  men;  this  "Anti-Orthodox  influ 
ence"  has  chosen  and  is  sustaining  an  "  Ortho 
dox"  Agent,  and  one  that  is  sent  for  sometimes 
to  repair  the  mischief  done  by  agents  of  the 
American  Society  :  this  Society,  at  its  public 
meetings,  has  "  passed  resolutions  recommending 
that  ministers  and  Christians,  in  their  public 
meetings,  should  pray  for  the  slave  ;"  its  own 
public  meetings  have  been  "  opened  with  prayer;" 
its  agent,  (to  say  nothing  of  the  liberty  of  its  or 
gan,)  and  its  members  have  always  had  liberty 
to  plead  for  the  slave,  in  as  "  orthodox"  language, 
and  by  as  "  orthodox"  arguments  as  they  pleased; 
and,  iii  fine,  the  society  has  every  one  of  those 
characteristics,  by  virtue  of  which,  the  Specta 
tor  declares  the  American  Society  to  be  "  practi- 


177 


cally  orthodox;"  and  yet,  strange  to  tell,  the  Amer 
ican  Society  looks  upon  the  difficulties  that  have 
sprung  up  here  out  of  these  things,  with  which  it 
self,  by  its  agents  and  otherwise,  has  had  as  much 
to  do  as  any  one,  as  a  mere  personal  and  family 
quarrel  ;  and  the.  friends  of  the  new  organization, 
on  the  other  hand,  cannot  endure  the  Massachu 
setts  Society,  to  be.  sure,  but  are  for  going  into 
most  cordial  and  hearty  auxiliaryship  to  the  Amer 
ican!  A.A.  PHELPS." 


16 


14  DAY  USE 

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GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERKELEY 


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